Joan of Arc

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JOAN OF ARC

BY

Lord Ronald Gower, f. s. a.

A TRUSTF.E OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS
SEVEN ETCHINGS AND THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS

LONDON

JOHN C. NniMO

14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
MDCCCXCIII

/j, GOooGo

o3

-T

Ai^"

I, \> \'\

Dedication.

My mother had what the French call a culte
for the heroine whose life I have attempted to
write in the following pages.

It was but natural that one who loved and
admired all that is good and beautiful and
high-minded should have a strong feeling of
admiration for the memory of Joan of Arc. On
the pedestal of the bronze statue, which my
mother placed in her house at Cliveden, are
inscribed those words which sum up the life and
career of the Maid of Orleans : —

' La grattde pitie qu'il y avait au royauine de France.'

Thinking that could my mother have read

the following pages she would have approved

the feeling which prompted me to write them,

I inscribe this little book to her beloved

memory.

R. G.

Arcachon,

November 2g.

Preface.

The authors whose works I have chiefly used
in writing this Life of Joan of Arc, are — first,
Quicherat, who was the first to pubHsh at
length the Minutes of the two trials concerning
the Maid — that of her trial at Rouen in 1430,
and of her rehabilitation in 1456, and who
unearthed so many chronicles relating to her
times ; secondly, Wallon, whose Life of Joan
of Arc is of all the fullest and most reliable ;
thirdly, Fabre, who has within the last few
years published several most important books
respecting the life and death of Joan. Fabre
was the first to make a translation in full of
the two trials which Quicherat had first pub-
lished in the original Latin text.

Thinking references at the foot of the page
a nuisance to the reader, these have been
avoided.

The subjects for the etched illustrations in
this volume have been kindly supplied by my
friend, Mr. Lee Latrobe Bateman, during a
journey we made together to places connected
with the story of the heroine.

R. G.

London, January, i8gj.

Contents.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

THE CALL I

CHAPTER n.
THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS 39

CHAPTER HI.
THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS 70

CHAPTER IV.
THE CAPTURE 100

CHAPTER V.
IMPRLSONMENT AND TRIAL 138

CHAPTER VI
MARTYRDOM 242

CHAPTER VII
THE REHABILITATION 253

CONTENTS.

APPENDIX.

PAGE

I. JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH HISTORY 289
II. JOAN OF ARC IN POETRY 301

FRENCH BIBLIOGRAPHY 311

ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY 320

INDEX 323

List of Illustrations

(SEVEN ETCHINGS, THREE PHOTO- ETCHINGS).

TOUR COUDRAY— CHINON .... Frontispiece

CHINON To face fage i6

STREET IN CHINON „ 20

HALL OF AUDIENCE— CHINON ... ,,28

TOUR D'HORLOGE— CtHNON .... ,,32

WEST PORTAL— RHEIMS ,, So

INTERIOR— RHEI.VIS ,, 96

FIFTEENTH-CENTURY HOUSES— COMPIEGNE „ 112

TOUR DE LA PUCELLE— COMPIEGNE . . ,, 128

ST. OUEN— ROUEN ,,224

Joan of Arc.

CHAPTER I.

THE CALL.

IVTEVER perhaps in modern times had a
■^ ^ country sunk so low as France, when,
in the year 1420, the treaty of Troyes was
signed. Henry V. of England had made him-
self master of nearly the whole kingdom ; and
although the treaty only conferred the title of
Regent of France on the English sovereign
during the lifetime of the imbecile Charles VI.,
Henry was assured in the near future of the full
possession of the French throne, to the exclusion
of the Dauphin. Henry received with the daugh-
ter of Charles VI. the Duchy of Normandy,
besides the places conquered by Edward III.
and his famous son ; and of fourteen provinces
left by Charles V. to his successor only three
remained in the power of the French crown.
The French Parliament assented to these hard
conditions, and but one voice was raised in
protest to the dismemberment of France ; that
solitary voice, a voice crying in a wilderness,
was that of Charles the Dauphin — afterwards
Charles VII. Henry V. had fondly imagined that

A

2 JOAN OF ARC.

by the treaty of Troyes and his marriage with a
French princess the war, which had lasted over
a century between the two countries, would now
cease, and that France would lie for ever at the
foot of England. Indeed, up to Henry's death,
at the end of August 1422, events seemed to
justify such hopes ; but after a score of years
from Henry's death France had recovered almost
the whole of her lost territory.

There is nothing in history more strange and
yet more true than the story which has been told
so often, but which never palls in its interest — that
life of the maiden through whose instrumentality
France regained her place among the nations. No
poet's fancy has spun from out his imagination a
more glorious tale, or pictured in glowing words
an epic of heroic love and transcendent valour, to
compete with the actual reality of the career of
this simple village maiden of old France : she who,
almost unassisted and alone, through her intense
love of her native land and deep pity for xhe woes
of her people, was enabled, when the day of action
at length arrived, to triumph over unnumbered
obstacles, and, in spite of all opposition, ridicule,
and contumely, to fulfil her glorious mission.

Sainte-Beuve has written that, in his opinion,
the way to honour the history of Joan of Arc is to
tell the truth about her as simply as possible. This
has been my object in the following pages.

On the border of Lorraine and Champagne,
in the canton of the Barrois — between the
rivers Marne and Meuse — extended, at the time
of which we are writing, a vast forest, called the

THE CALL. 3

Der. By the side of a little streamlet, which took
its source from the river Meuse, and dividing
it east by west, stands the village of Domremy.
The southern portion, confined within its banks
and watered by its stream, contained a little for-
talice, with a score of cottages grouped around.
These were situated in the county of Champagne,
under the suzerainty of the Count de Bar.

The northern side of the village, containing the
church, belonged to the Manor of Vaucouleurs.
In this part of the village, in a cottage built
between the church and the rivulet close by, Joan
of Arc was born, on or about the 6th of January,
141 2. The house which now exists on the site
of her birthplace was built in 1481, but the little
streamlet still takes its course at its foot. Michelet,
in his account of the heroine, says the station in
life of Joan's father was that of a labourer; later
investigations have proved that he was what we
should call a small farmer. In the course of the
trial held for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc's
memory, which yields valuable and authentic infor-
mation relating to her family as well as to her life
and actions, it appears that the neighbours of the
heroine deposed that her parents were well-to-do
agriculturists, holding a small property besides this
house at Domremy ; they held about twenty acres
of land, twelve of which were arable, four meadow-
land, and four for fuel. Besides this they had some
two to three hundred francs kept safe in case of
emergency, and the furniture goods and chattels
of their modest home. The money thus kept
in case of sudden trouble came in usefully when

4 yOAN OF ARC.

the family had to escape from the English to
Neufchateau. All told, the fortune of the family
of Joan attained an annual income of about two
hundred pounds of our money, a not inconsider-
able revenue at that time ; and with it they were
enabled to raise a family in comfort, and to give
alms and hospitality to the poor, and wandering
friars and other needy wayfarers, then so common
in the land.

Two documents lately discovered prove Joan's
father to have held a position of some importance
at Domremy. In the one, dated 1423, he is styled
'doyen' (senior inhabitant) of the village, which
gave him rank next to the Mayor. In the other,
four years later, he fills a post which tallies with
what is called in Scotland the Procurator-fiscal.

The name of the family was Arc, and much
ink has been shed as to the origin of that name.
By some it is derived from the village of d'Arc,
in the Barrois, now in the department of the
Haute Marne ; and this hypothesis is as good
as any other.

Jacques d'Arc had taken to wife one Isabeau
Romee, from the village of Vouthon, near Dom-
remy. Isabeau is said to have had some property
in her native village. The family of Jacques
d'Arc and Isabella or Isabeau consisted of five
children: three sons, Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre,
and two daughters, the elder Catherine, the
younger Jeanne, or Jennette, as she was generally
called in her family, whose name was to go through
the ages as one of the most glorious in any land.

Well favoured by nature was the birthplace of

THE CALL. 5

Joan of Arc, with its woods of chestnut and of oak,
then in their primeval abundance. The vine of
Greux, which was famous all over the country-side
as far back as the fourteenth century, grew on the
southern slopes of the hills about Joan's birthplace.
Beneath these vineyards the fields were thickly
clothed with rye and oats, and the meadow-lands
washed by the waters of the Meuse were fragrant
with hay that had no rival in the country. It was
in these rich fields that, after the hay-making was
over, the peasants let out their cattle to graze, the
number of each man's kine corresponding with the
number of fields which he owned and which he
had reaped.

The little maid sometimes helped her father's
labourers, and the idea has become general that
Joan of Arc was a shepherdess ; in reality, it was
only an occasional occupation, and probably under-
taken by Joan out of mere good-nature, seeing that
her parents were well-to-do people. All that we
gather of Joan's early years proves her nature to
have been a compound of love and goodness.
Every trait recorded of the little maid's life at
home which has come down to us reveals a
mixture of amiability, unselfishness, and charity.
From her earliest years she loved to help the
weak and poor ; she was known, when there was
no room for the weary wayfarer to pass the night
in her parents' house, to give up her bed to
them, and to sleep on the floor, by the hearth.

She loved her mother tenderly, and in her trial
she bore witness before men to the good influence
that she had derived from that parent. Isabeau

6 JOAN OF ARC.

d'Arc appears to have been a devout woman, and
to have brought up her children to love work
and religion. Joan loved to sit by her mother's
side for the hour together, spinning, and doubtless
listening to the stories of wars with the here-
ditary enemy. When she could be of use, Joan
was ever ready to lend a hand to help her
father or brothers in the rougher labours of
coach-house, stable, or farmyard, to keep watch
over the flocks as they browsed by the river-side
along the meadow-lands.

Joan had not the defect of so many excellent
but tedious women, who love talk for the mere
sake of talking : she seems to have been reserved ;
but, as she proved later on, she was never at a loss
for a word in season, and with a few words could
speak volumes. From her childhood she showed
an intense and ever-increasing devotion to things
holy; her delight in prayer became almost a pas-
sion. She never wearied of visiting the churches
in and about her native village, and she passed
many an hour in a kind of rapt trance before the
crucifixes and saintly images in these churches.
Every morning saw her at her accustomed place
at the early celebration of her Lord's Sacrifice ;
and if in the afternoon the evening bells sounded
across the fields, she would kneel devoutly, and
commune in her heart with her divine Master
and adored saints. She loved above all things
these evening bells, and, when it seemed to her
the ringer grew negligent, would bribe him with
some little gift — the worked wool from one of
her sheep or some other trifle — to remind him

THE CALL. 7

in the future to be more instant in his office.
That this little trait in Joan is true, we have the
testimony of the bell-ringer himself to attest.

This devotion to her religious duties had not
the effect of making Joan less of a companion
to her fellow-villagers. She could not have been
so much beloved by them as she was had she held
herself aloof from them : on the contrary, Joan
enjoyed to play with the lads and village lasses ;
and we hear of her swiftness of foot in the race, of
her gracefulness in the village dance, either by the
stream or around an old oak-tree in the forest,
which was said to be the favourite haunt of the
fairies.

Often in the midst of these sports Joan would
break away from her companions, and enter some
church or chapel, where she placed garlands of
flowers around statues of her beloved saints.

Thus passed away the early years of the
maiden's gentle life, among her native fields, with
nothing especially to distinguish her from her
companions beyond her goodness and piety. A
great change, however, was near at hand. The
first of those mysterious and supernatural events
which played so all-important a part in the life of
our heroine occurred in the summer of 1425, when
Joan was in her thirteenth year. In her trial at
Rouen, on being asked by her judges what was the
first manifestation of these visions, she answered
that the first indication of what she always called
'My voices' was that of St. Michel. It is not
a little remarkable that this vision of St. Michel,
the patron saint of the French army, should have

8 JOAN OF ARC.

taken place in the summer of 1425, at the time of
a double defeat by land and sea of the enemy of
France, and when the Holy Mount in Normandy,
crowned by the chapel guarded by St. Michel,
was once again in the hands of the French. At
the same time, Joan of Arc experienced some of
the hardships of war when the country around
Domremy was overrun by the enemy ; and the
little household of the Arcs had to fly for shelter
to the neighbouring village of Chateauneuf, in
Lorraine.

I will pass somewhat rapidly over the visions,
or rather revelations — for, whatever doubts one may
hold as to such heavenly messengers appearing
literally on this earth, no man can honestly doubt
that Joan believed as firmly in these unearthly
visitants coming from Heaven direct as she did in
the existence of herself or of her parents. On
the subject of these voices and visions no one
has written with more sense than a distinguished
prelate who was a contemporary of the heroine's
— namely, Thomas Basin, Bishop of Lisieux, who,
in a work relating to Joan of Arc, writes thus : —

' As regards her mission, and as regards the
apparitions and revelations that she affirmed
having had, we leave to every one the liberty to
believe as he pleases, to reject or to hold, ac-
cording to his point of view or way of thinking.
What is important regarding these visions is the
fact that Joan had herself no shadow of a doubt
regarding their reality, and it was their effect upoQ
her, and not her natural inclination, which impelled
her to leave her parents and her home to under-

THE CALL. 9

take great perils and to endure great hardships,
and, as it proved, a terrible death. It was these
visions and voices, and they alone, which made
her believe that she would succeed, if she obeyed
them, in saving her country and in replacing her
king on his throne. It was these visions and
voices which finally enabled her to do those
marvellous deeds, and accomplish what appeared
to all the world the impossible ; these voices and
visions will ever be connected with Joan of Arc,
and with her deathless fame and glory.'

From the year 1425 till 1428, the apparitions
and voices were heard and seen more or less
frequently.

It is the year 1427 : all that remains to
Charles of his kingdom north of the Loire, with
the exception of Tournay, are a pitiful half-dozen
places. Among these is Vaucouleurs, near Dom-
remy. They are defended by a body of men
under the command of a knight, Robert de Baud-
ricourt, who is about to play an important part in
the history of Joan.

In one of her visions the maid was told to seek
this knight, that through his help she might be
brought to the French Court ; for the voices had
told her she might find the King and tell him her
message, by which she should deliver the land
from the English, and restore him to his throne.
There had not been wanting legends and pro-
phecies upon the country-side which may have
impressed Joan, and helped her to believe that
it was her mission to deliver France. One of
the prophecies was to the effect that a maiden

lo JOAN OF ARC.

from the borders of Lorraine should save France,
that this maiden would appear from a place near
an oak forest. This seemed to point directly to
our heroine. The old oak-tree haunted by the
fairies, the neighbouring country of Lorraine,
were all in help of the tradition. Since the be-
trayal of her husband's country by the wife of
Charles VI., another saying had been spread
abroad throughout all that remained of that
small portion of France still held by the French
King — namely, that although. France would be
lost by a woman, a maiden should save it. Any
hope to the people in those distressful days was
eagerly seized on ; and although the first pro-
phecy dated from the mythical times of Merlin,
it stirred the people, especially when, later on,
Joan of Arc appeared among them, and her
story became known.

These prophecies appear to have struck deeply
into Joan's soul ; they, and her voices aiding,
made her believe she was the maiden by whom
her country would be delivered from the presence
of the enemy. But how was she to make her
parents understand that it was their child who
was appointed by Heaven to fulfil this great
deliverance ? Her father seems to have been
a somewhat harsh, at any rate a practical,
parent. When told of her intention to join the
army, he said he would rather throw her into the
river than allow her to do so. An attempt was
made by her parents to induce her to marry.
They tried their best, but Joan would none of
it; and bringing the case before the lawyers at

THE CALL. II

Toul, where she proved that she had never
thought of marrying a youth whom her parents
required her to wed, she gained her cause and
her freedom.

In order to take the first step in her mission,
Joan feh it necessary to rely on some one outside
her immediate family. A distant relation of her
mother's, one Durand Laxart, who with his wife
lived in a litde village then named Burey-le-Petit
{now called Burey-en-Vaux), near Vaucouleurs,
was the relation in whose care she placed her
fate. With him and his wife Joan remained eight
days ; and it might have been then that the plan
was arranged to hold an interview with Baudri-
court at Vaucouleurs, in order to see whether
that knight would interest himself in Joan's
mission.

The interview took place about the middle of
the month of May {1428), and nothing could have
been less propitious. A soldier named Bertrand
de Poulangy, who was one of the garrison of
Vaucouleurs, was an eye-witness of the meeting.
He accompanied Joan of Arc later on to Chinon,
and left a record of the almost brutal manner
with which Baudricourt received the Maid. From
this soldier's narrative we possess one of the rare
glimpses which have come down to us of the
appearance of the heroine : not indeed a descrip-
tion of what would be of such intense interest as
to make known to us the appearance and features
of her face ; but he describes her dress, which
was that then worn by the better-to-do agricul-
tural class of Lorraine peasant women, made of

12 JOAN OF ARC.

rough red serge, the cap such as is still worn
by the peasantry of her native place.

It is much to be regretted that no portrait of
Joan of Arc exists either in sculpture or painting.
A life-size bronze statue which portrayed the Maid
kneeling on one side of a crucifix, with Charles
VII. opposite, forming part of a group near the
old bridge of Orleans, was destroyed by the
Huguenots ; and all the portraits' of Joan painted
in oils are spurious. None are earlier than the
sixteenth century, and all are mere imaginary
daubs. In most of these Joan figures in a hat
and feathers, of the style worn in the Court of
Francis I. From various contemporary notices,
it appears that her hair was dark in colour, as in
Bastien Lepage's celebrated picture, which sup-
plies as good an idea of what Joan may have
been as any pictured representation of her form
and face. Would that the frescoes which Mon-
taigne describes as being painted on the front of
the house upon the site of which Joan was born
could have come down to us. They might have
given some conception of her appearance. Mon-
taigne saw those frescoes on his way to Italy, and
says that all the front of the house was painted
with representations of her deeds, but even in his
day they were much injured.

When Joan at length stood before the knight
of Vaucouleurs, she told him boldly that she had
come to him by God's command, and that she
was destined to give the King victory over the
English. She even said that she was assured
that early in the following March this would be

THE CALL. 13

accomplished, and that the Dauphin would then
be crowned at Rheims, for all these things had
been promised to her through her Lord.

'And who is he?' asked de Baudricourt.

' He is the King of Heaven,' she answered.

The knight treated Joan's words with deri-
sion, and Joan herself with insults ; and thus
ended the first of their interviews.

It was only in the season of Lent of the next
year {March 1427) that Joan again sought the
aid of de Baudricourt. On the plea of attending
her cousin Laxart's wife's confinement, Joan re-
turned to Burey-le-Petit. She left Domremy
without bidding her parents farewell ; but it has
been recorded by one of her friends, named
Mengeth, a neighbour of the d'Arcs, that she
told this woman of her intention of going to
Vaucouleurs, and recommended her to God's
keeping, as if she felt that she would not see
her again. At Burey-le-Petit Joan remained
between the end of January until her departure
for Chinon, on the 23rd of February ; and be-
fore taking final leave she asked and received
her parents' pardon for her abrupt departure
from them.

While with the Laxarts, news reached Vau-
couleurs that the English had commenced the
siege of Orleans. This intelligence brought
matters to a crisis, for with the loss of Orleans
the whole of what remained to the French King
must fall into the hands of the enemy, and
France felt her last hour of independence had
come.

14 JOAN OF ARC.

Joan determined on again seeking an interview
with Robert de Baudricourt, and this second meet-
ing between her and the knight, which took place
six months after the first, had far happier results.
As M. Simeon Luce has pointed out in his history
of ' Jeanne d'Arc at Domremy,' the situation both
of Charles VI. and of the knight of Vaucouleurs
was far different in 1429 to what it had been when
Joan first saw de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs in
the previous year. The most important strong-
hold held by the French in their ever-lessening
territory was in utmost danger of falling into the
grasp of the English ; while de Baudricourt was
anxiously waiting to hear whether his protector,
the Due de Bar, whom Bedford had summoned to
enter into a treaty with the English, would not
be prevailed upon to do so. If he consented,
this would make the knight's tenure of Vau-
couleurs impracticable. It was probably owing
to this state of affairs that, on her second inter-
view with the knight of Vaucouleurs, Joan of
Arc was favourably received by him. Since the
first visit to de Baudricourt by the Maid of Dom-
remy, her name had become familiar to many of
the people in and about Vaucouleurs. An offi-
cer named Jean de Metz has left some record of
his meeting at this time with Joan ; for he was
afterwards examined among other witnesses at
the time of the Maid's rehabilitation in 1456. De
Metz describes the Maid as being clothed in a
dress of coarse red serge, the same as she wore
on her first visit to Vaucouleurs. When he ques-
tioned her as to what she expected to gain by

THE CALL. SI

coming again to Vaucouleurs, she answered that
she had returned to induce Robert de Baudricourt
to conduct her to the King ; but that on her first
visit he was deaf to her entreaties and prayers.
But, she added, she was still determined to appear
before Charles, even if she had to gfo to him all
the way on her knees.

' For I alone,' she added, 'and no other person,
whether he be King, or Duke, or daughter of the
King of Scots ' (alluding to the future wife of
Charles VII. 's son, Louis XI. — Margaret of Scot-
land) 'can recover the kingdom of France.'

As far as her own wishes were concerned, she
said she would prefer to return to her home, and
to spin again by the side of her beloved mother ;
for, she added : ' I am not made to follow the
career of a soldier ; but I must go and carry out
this my calling, for my Lord has appointed me to
do so.'

' And who,' asked de Metz, ' is your Lord } '

' My Lord, ' answered the Maid, ' is God
H imself '

The enthusiasm of Joan seems to have at once
gained the soldier's heart. He took her by the
hand, and swore that God willing he would accom-
pany her to the King. When asked how soon
she would be ready to start, she said that she was
ready. ' Better to-day than to-morrow, and better
to-morrow than later on.'

During her second visit to Vaucouleurs, Joan
remained with the same friends as on her former
visit ; they appear to have been an honest couple,
of the name of Le Royer. One day while Joan

i6 JOAN OF ARC.

was helping in the domestic work of her hosts, and
seated by the side of Catherine Le Royer, Robert
de Baudricourt suddenly entered the room, accom-
panied by a priest, one Jean Fournier, in full
canonicals. It appeared that the knight had con-
ceived the brilliant idea of finding out, through
the assistance of the holy man, whether Joan was
under the influence of good or evil spirits, before
allowing her to go to the King's Court.

As may be imagined, Joan received the priest
with all respect, kneeling before him ; and the
good father was soon able to reassure de Baudri-
court that the evil spirits had no part or parcel in
the heart of the maid who received him with so
much humility.

For three weeks Joan was left in suspense at
Vaucouleurs, and probably it was not until a mes-
senger had been sent to Chinon and had returned
with a favourable answer, that at length de Baudri-
court gave a somewhat unwilling consent to Joan's
leaving Vaucouleurs on her mission to Chinon.
During those weary weeks of anxious waiting,
Joan's hostess bore witness in after days to the
manner in which the time was passed : of how she
would help Catherine in her spinning and other
homely work, but, as when at home, her chief
delight was to attend the Church services, and she
would often remain to confession, after the early
communion in the church. The chapel in which
she worshipped was not the parochial church of
Vaucouleurs, but was attached to the castle, and it
still exists. In that castle chapel, and in a sub-
terranean crypt beneath the Collegiate Church of

CHINON.

THE CALL. 17

Notre Dame de Vaucouleurs, Joan passed much
of her time. Seven and twenty years after these
events, one Jean le Fumeux, at that time a chor-
ister of the chapel, a lad of eleven, bore witness, at
the trial in which the memory of Joan was vin-
dicated, to having often seen her kneeling before
an image of the Virgin. This image, a battered
and rude one, still exists. Nothing less artistic can
be imagined ; but no one, be his religious views
what they may, be his abhorrence of Mariolatry as
strong as that of a Calvinist, if he have a grain of
sympathy in his nature for what is glorious in
patriotism and sublime in devotion, can look on
that battered and broken figure without a feeling
deeper than one of ordinary curiosity.

A short time before leaving Vaucouleurs, Joan
made a visit into Lorraine — a visit which proved
how early her fame had spread abroad. The then
reigning Duke of that province, Charles II. of
Lorraine, an aged and superstitious prince, had
heard of the mystic Maid of Domremy, and he
had expressed his wish to see her, probably think-
ing that she might afford him relief from the
infirmities from which he suffered. Whatever
the reason may have been, he sent her an urgent
request to visit him, a message with which Joan
at once complied.

Accompanied by Jean de Metz, Joan went to
Toul, and thence with her cousin, Durand Laxart,
she proceeded to Nancy. Little is known of her
deeds while there. She visited Duke Charles, and
gave him some advice as to how he should regain
his character more than his health, over which she

B

1 8 JOAN OF ARC.

said she had no control. The old Duke appears
to have been rather a reprobate, but whether he
profited by Joan's advice does not appear.

Possibly this rather vague visit of the Maid's
to Nancy was undertaken as a kind of test as to
how she would comport herself among dukes and
princes. That she showed most perfect modesty
of bearing under somewhat difficult circumstances
seems to have struck those who were with her at
Nancy. She also showed practical sagacity ; for
she advised Duke Charles to give active sup-
port to the French King, and persuaded him
to allow his son-in-law, young Rene of Anjou,
Duke of Bar, to enter the ranks of the King's
army, and even to allow him to accompany her to
the Court at Chinon. By this she bound the
more than lukewarm Duke of Lorraine to exert
all his influence on the side of King- Charles.

Before leaving Nancy on her return to Vau-
couleurs, Joan visited a famous shrine, not far
from the capital, dedicated to St. Nicolas, after
which she hastened back to Vaucouleurs to make
ready for an immediate start for Chinon.

Joan's equipment for her journey to Chinon was
subscribed for by the people of Vaucouleurs ; for
among the common folk there, as wherever she
was known, her popularity was great. She seems
to have won in every instance the hearts of the
good simple peasantry, the poorer classes in gen-
eral, called by a saintly King of France the ' com-
mon people of our Lord,' who believed in her
long before others of the higher classes and the
patricians were persuaded to put any faith in her.

THE CALL. 19

To the peasantry Joan was already the maiden
pointed out in the old prophecy then known all
over France, which said that the country would be
first lost by a woman and then recovered by a
maiden hailing from Lorraine. The former was
believed to be the Queen-mother, who had sided
with the English; Joan, the Maid out of Lorraine
who should save France, and by whose arm the
English would be driven out of the country.

Clad in a semi-male attire, composed of a tight-
fitting doublet of dark cloth and tunic reaching to
the knees, high leggings and spurred boots, with
a black cap on her head, and a hauberk, the Maid
was armed with lance and sword, the latter the
gift of de Baudricourt. Her good friends of Vau-
couleurs had also subscribed for a horse. Thus
completely equipped, she prepared for war, ready
for her eventful voyage. Her escort consisted of
a knight named Colet de Vienne, accompanied by
his squire, one Richard I'Archer, two men-at-arms
from Vaucouleurs, and the two knights Bertrand
de Poulangy and Jean de Metz — eight men in
all, well armed and well mounted, and thoroughly
prepared to defend their charge should the occasion
arise. Nor were precautions and means of repel-
ling an attack unnecessary, for at this time the
country around Vaucouleurs was infested by rov-
ing bands of soldiers belonging to the Anglo-
Burgundian party. Especially dangerous was that
stretch of country lying between Vaucouleurs and
Joinville, the first of the many stages on the way
to Chinon. Although the knights and men of the
small expedition were not without apprehension.

20 JOAN OF ARC.

Joan seems to have shown no sign of fear : calm
and cheerful, she said that, being under the protec-
tion of Heaven, they had nothing to fear, for that
no evil could befall her.

There still exists the narrow gate of the old
castle of Vaucouleurs through which that little
band rode out into the night ; hard by is the small
subterranean chapel, now under repair, where Joan
had passed so many hours of her weary weeks
of waiting at Vaucouleurs. The old gate is still
called the French Gate, as it was in the days of
the Maid.

It was the evening of the 23rd of February,
1429, that the little band rode away into the open
country on their perilous journey. Joan, besides
adopting a military attire, had trimmed her dark
hair close, as it was then the fashion of knights to
do — cut round above the ears. Even this harm-
less act was later brought as an accusation against
her. Joan was then in her seventeenth year, and,
although nothing but tradition has reached us of
her looks and outward form, it is not difficult to
imagine her as she rides out of that old gate, a
comely maid, with a frank, brave countenance, lit
up by the flame of an intense enthusiasm for her
country and people. There can be no doubt that
by her companions in arms — rough soldiers though
most of them were — she was held in veneration ;
they bore testimony to their feelings by a kind of
adoration for one who seemed indeed to them
more than mortal. Wherever Joan appeared,
this feeling of veneration spread rapidly through
the length and breadth of the land ; and the

STREET IN CHINON.

vAmiiij m xaaaTe

THE CALL. 21

people were wont to speak of the future saviour
of France, not by the name of Joan the Maid,
or Joan of Arc, but as the Angelic One — ' I'An-
g^lique.'

Among the crowd who gathered to see Joan
depart was de Baudricourt, who then made
amends for his rudeness and churlish behaviour
on her first visit by presenting her with his
own sword, and bidding her heartily god-speed.
' Advienne que pourraf was his parting salute.

The journey between Vaucouleurs and Chinon
occupied eleven days. Not only was the danger
of attack from the English and Burgundian soldiers
a great and a constant one, but the winter, which
had been exceptionally wet, had flooded all the
rivers. Five of these had to be crossed — namely,
the Marne, the Aube, the Seine, the Yonne, and
the Loire: and most of the bridges and fords of
these rivers were strictly guarded by the enemy.
The little band, for greater security, mostly tra-
velled during the night. Their first halt was made
at the Monastery of Saint-Urbain-les-Joinville.
The Celibat of this monastery was named Arnoult
d'Aunoy, and was a relative of de Baudricourt.
After leaving that shelter they had to camp out
in the open country.

Joan's chief anxiety was that she might be able
to attend Mass every day. ' If we are able to
attend the service of the Church, all will be well,'
she said to her escort. The soldiers only twice
allowed her the opportunity of doing so, on one
occasion in the principal church of the town of
Auxerre.

22 JOAN OF ARC.

They crossed the Loire at Gien ; and at that
place, in the church dedicated to one of Joan's
special saints — St. Catherine, for whom she held
a personal adoration — she thrice attended Mass.

When the litde band entered Touraine, they
were out of danger, and here the news of the
approach of the Maid spread like wildfire over
the country-side. Even the besieged burghers of
Orleans learned that the time of their delivery
from the English was at hand.

Perhaps it was when passing through Fierbois
that Joan may have been told of the existence in
its church of the sword which so conspicuously
figured in her later story, and was believed to
have been miraculously revealed to her.

A letter was despatched from Fierbois to
Charles at Chinon, announcing the Maid's ap-
proach, and craving an audience. At length, on
the 6th of March, Joan of Arc arrived beneath
the long stretch of castle walls of the splendid
old Castle of Chinon.

That imposing ruin on the banks of the river
Vienne is even in its present abandoned state one
of the grandest piles of mediaeval building in the
whole of France. Crowning the rich vale of Tour-
aine, with the river winding below, and reflecting
its castle towers in the still water, this time-hon-
oured home of our Plantagenet kings has been not
inaptly compared to Windsor. Beneath the castle
walls and the river, nestles the quaint old town, in
which are mediaeval houses once inhabited by the
court and followers of the French and Eno-lish
kings.

THE CALL. 23

When Joan arrived at Chinon, Charles's affairs
were in a very perilous state. The yet uncrowned
King of France regarded the chances of being able
to hold his own in France as highly problematical.
He had doubts as to his legitimacy. Financially,
so low were his affairs that even the turnspits in
the palace were clamouring for their unpaid wages.
The unfortunate monarch had already sold his
jewels and precious trinkets. Even his clothes
showed signs of poverty and patching, and to
such a state of penury was he reduced that his
bootmaker, finding that the King was unable to
pay him the price of a new pair of boots, and not
trusting the royal credit, refused to leave the new
boots, and Charles had to wear out his old shoe-
leather. All that remained in the way of money
in the royal chest consisted of four gold '6cus.'
To such a pitch of distress had the poor King,
who was contemptuously called by the English
the King of Bourges, sunken.

Now that Orleans was in daily peril of falling
into the hands of the English, and with Paris and
Rouen in their hold, the wretched sovereign had
serious thoughts of leaving his ever-narrowing
territory and taking refuge either in Spain or in
Scotland. Up to this time in his life Charles had
shown little strength of character. His existence
was passed among a set of idle courtiers. He
had placed himself and his broken fortunes in
the hands of the ambitious La Tremoille, whose
object it was that the King should be a mere
cipher in his hands, and who lulled him into a
false security by encouraging him to continue a

24 JOAN OF ARC.

listless career of self-indulgence in his various
palaces and pleasure castles on the banks of the
Loire. Charles had, indeed, become a mere tool
in the hands of this powerful minister. The his-
torian Quicherat has summed up George de la
Tremo'ille's character as an avaricious courtier,
false and despotic, with sufficient talent to make
a name and a fortune by being a traitor to every
side. That such a man did not see Joan of Arc's
arrival with a favourable eye is not a matter of
surprise, and La Tremoille seems early to have
done his utmost to undermine the Maid's influence
with his sovereign. From the day she arrived at
Chinon, if not even before her arrival there —
if we may trust one story — an ambush was ar-
ranged by Tremoille to cut her off with her
escort. That plot failed, but her capture at
Compiegne may be indirectly traced to La Tre-
mo'ille's machinations.

Those who have visited Chinon will recall the
ancient and picturesque street, named La Haute
Rue Saint Maurice, which runs beneath and
parallel with the castle walls and the Vienne.
Local tradition pointed out till very recently, in
this old street, the stone well on the side of which
the Maid of Domremy placed her foot on her
arrival in the town. This ancient well stone has
recently been removed by the Municipality of
Chinon, but fortunately the ' Margelle ' (to use
the native term) has come into reverent hands,
and the stone, with its deeply dented border,
reminding one of the artistic wells in Venice, is
religiously preserved.

THE CALL. 25

Of Chinon it has been said :
Chynon, petit ville,
Grande renom.

Its renown dates back from the early days of our
Plantagenets, when they lived in the old fortress
above its dwellings: how Henry III. died of a
broken heart, and the fame of Rabelais, will
ever be associated with the ancient castle and
town. Still, the deathless interest of Chinon is
owing to the residence of the Maid of Domremy
— as one has a better right to call her than of
Orleans — in those early days of her short career,
in its burgh and castle. In or near the street
La Haute Rue Saint Maurice, hard by a square
which now bears the name of the heroine, Joan
of Arc arrived at noon on Sunday, the 6th of
March.

It would be interesting to know in which of
the old gabled houses Joan resided during the two
days before she was admitted to enter the castle.
Local tradition reports that she dwelt with a good
housewife {^chez ime bonne femme'). According
to a contemporary plan of Chinon, dated 1430,
a house which belonged to a family named La
Barre was where she lodged ; and although the
actual house of the La Barres cannot be identified,
there are many houses in the street of Saint
Maurice old enough to have witnessed the advent
of the Maid on that memorable Sunday in the
month of March 1430. Few French towns are
so rich in the domestic architecture of the better
kind dating from the early part of the fifteenth
century as that of Chinon ; and now that Rouen,

26 JOAN OF ARC.

Orleans, and Poitiers have been so terribly mod-
ernised, a journey to Chinon well repays the
trouble. Little imagination is required to picture
the street with its crowd of courtiers and Court
hangers-on, upon their way to and from the
castle above ; so mercifully have time and that
far greater destroyer of things of yore dealt with
this old thoroughfare.

Two days elapsed before Joan was admitted
to the presence of the King. A council had been
summoned in the castle to determine whether
the Maid should be received by the monarch.
The testimony of the knights who had accom-
panied the Maid from Vaucouleurs carried the
day in her favour.

While waiting to see the King, we have from
Joan's own lips a description of how her time was
passed. ' I was constantly at prayers in order
that God should send the King a sign. I was
lodging with a good woman when that sign was
given him, and then I was summoned to the King.'

The church in which she passed her time in
prayer was doubtless that of Saint Maurice, close
by the place at which she lodged. It owed its
origin to Henry II. of England ; it is a rare and
beautiful little building of good Norman archi-
tecture, but much defaced by modern restoration.
Its age is marked by the depth at which its pave-
ment stands, the ground rising many feet above
its present level.

A reliable account of Joan of Arc's interview
with King Charles has come down to us, as have
so many other facts in her life's history, through

THE CALL. 27

the witnesses examined at the time of the hero-
ine's rehabilitation. Foremost among these is
the testimony of a priest named Pasquerel, who
was soon to become Joan's ahnoner, and to
accompany her in her warfare. He tells how,
when Joan was on her road to enter the castle,
a soldier used some coarse language as he saw
the young Maid pass by — some rude remark
which the fellow qualified with an oath. Turn-
ing to him, the Maid rebuked him for blasphem-
ing, and added that he had denied his God at
the very moment in which he would be sum-
moned before his Judge, for that within an hour
he would appear before the heavenly throne.
The soldier was drowned within the hour. At
least such is the tale as told by Priest Pasquerel.
The castle was shrouded in outer darkness,
but brilliantly lit within, as Joan entered its
gates. The King's Chamberlain, the Comte de
Venddme, received the Maid at the entrance of
the royal apartments, and ushered her into the
great gallery, of which fragments still exist —
a blasted fireplace, and sufficient remains of the
original stone-work to prove that this hall was
the principal apartment in the palace. Flam-
beaux and torches glowed from the roof and
from the sides of this hall, and here the Court
had assembled, half amused, half serious, as to
the arrival of the peasant girl, about whom there
had been so much strange gossip stirring. Now
the grass grows in wild luxuriance over the pave-
ment, and the ivy clings to the old walls of that
noble room, in which, perhaps, the most note-

28 JOAN OF ARC.

worthy of all recorded meetings between king and
subject then took place. A score of torches held
by pages lit the sides of the chamber. Before
these were ranged the knights and ladies, the
latter clothed in the fantastically rich costume of
that time, with high erections on their heads, from
which floated long festoons of cloth, and glittering
with the emblems of their families on their storied
robes. The King, in order to test the divina-
tion of the Maid, had purposely clad himself in
common garb, and had withdrawn himself behind
his more brilliantly attired courtiers.

Ascending the flight of eighteen steps which
led into the hall, and following Vendome, Joan
passed across the threshold of the hall, and, with-
out a moment's hesitation singling out the King
at the end of the gallery, walked to within a few
paces of him, and falling on her knees before
him — 'the length of a lance,' as one of the
spectators recorded — said, ' God give you good
life, noble King!' {'Dieu vous donne bonne vie,
gentil Roi).

'But,' said Charles, 'I am not the Kine.
This,' pointing to one of his courtiers, 'is the
King.'

Joan, however, was not to be hoodwinked,
and, finding that in spite of his subterfuges he
was known, Charles acknowledged his identity,
and entered at once with Joan on the subject of
her mission.

It appears, from all the accounts which have
come to us of this interview, that Charles was
at first somewhat loth to take Joan and her

HALL OF AUDIENCE— CIIINON.

THE CALL. 29

mission seriously. He appears to have treated
the Maid as a mere visionary ; but after an
interview which the King gave her apart from
the crowded gallery, when she is supposed to
have revealed to him a secret known only to
himself, his whole manner changed, and from
that moment Joan exercised a strong influence
over the man, all-vacillating as was his character.
It has never been known what words actually
passed in this private interview between the
pair, but the subject probably was connected
with a doubt that had long tortured the mind
of the King — namely, whether he were legiti-
mately the heir to the late King's throne. At
any rate the impression Joan had produced on
the King was, after that conversation, a favour-
able one, and Charles commanded that, instead
of returning to her lodging in the town, Joan
should be lodged in the castle.

The tower which she occupied still exists —
one of the large circular towers on the third line
of the fortifications. A gloomy-looking cryptal
room on the ground floor was probably the one
occupied by Joan. It goes by the name of Belier's
Tower — a knight whose wife, Anne de Maille,
bore a reputation for great goodness among the
people of the Court. Close to Belier's Tower is a
chapel within another part of the castle grounds,
but the church which in those days stood hard by
Joan's tower has long since disappeared — its site
is now a mass of wild foliage.

While Joan was at Chinon, there arrived,
from his three years' imprisonment in England,

30 JOAN OF ARC.

the young Duke of Anjou. Of all those who
were attached to the Court and related to the
French sovereign, this young Prince was the
most sympathetic to Joan of Arc. He seems
to have fulfilled the character of some hero
of romance more than any of the French
princes of that time, and Joan at once found
in him a chivalrous ally and a firm friend.
That she admired him we cannot doubt, and
she loved to call him her knight.

Hurrying to Chinon, having heard of the
Maid of Domremy's arrival, he found Joan with
the Kincr. Her enthusiasm was contasfious with

o o

the young Prince, who declared how eagerly he
would help her in her enterprise.

' The more there are of the blood royal of
France to help in our enterprise the better,'
answered Joan.

Many obstacles had still to be met before
the King accorded liberty of action to the Maid.
La Tremoille and others of his stamp threw
all the difficulties they could suggest in the way
of Joan of Arc's expedition to deliver Orleans :
these men preferred their easy life at Chinon
to the arbitrament of battle. In vain Joan
sought the King and pressed him to come to a
decision : one day he said he would consent to
her progress, and the following he refused to
give his consent. He listened to the Maid, but
also to the courtiers, priests, and lawyers, and
among so many counsellors he could come to
no determination.

Joan during these days trained herself to the

THE CALL. 31

vocation which her career compelled her to follow.
We hear of her on one occasion surprising the
King and the Court by the dexterity with which
she rode and tilted with a lance. From the
young Duke of Alengon she received the gift
of a horse ; and the King carried out on a large
scale what de Baudricourt had done on a small
one, by making her a gift of arms and accoutre-
ments. Before, however, deciding to entrust the
fate of hostilities into the hands of the Maid, it
was decided that the advice and counsel of the
prelates assembled at Poitiers should be taken.

It was in the Great Hall of that town that
the French Parliament held its conferences.
The moment was critical, for should the decision
of these churchmen be favourable to Joan, then
Charles could no longer have any scruples in
making use of her abilities, and of profiting by
her influence.

It was, therefore, determined that Joan
should be examined by the Parliament and
clergy assembled at Poitiers. The King in
person accompanied the Maid to the Parlia-
ment. The majestic hall, which still calls forth
the admiration of all travellers at Poitiers, is
little changed in its appearance since the time
of that memorable event. It is one of the
noblest specimens of domestic architecture in
France : its graceful pillars and arched roof,
and immense fireplace, remain as they were
in the early days of the fifteenth century.

Of the proceedings of that examination un-
fortunately no complete report exists. Within

32 JOAN OF ARC.

a tower connected with the Parliament Hall is
still pointed out a little chamber, said to have
been occupied by the Maid while undergoing
this, the first of her judicial and clerical exam-
inations. But later investigations point to her
having been lodged in a house within the town
belonging to the family of the Parliamentary
Advocate-General, Maitre Jean Rabuteau.

It must have been a solemn moment for Joan
when summoned for the first time into the pre-
sence of the Court of bishops, judges, and
lawyers, whom Charles had gathered together
to examine her on her visions and on her mis-
sion. The orders had been sent out by the
King and the Archbishop of Rheims ; Gerard
Machot, the Bishop of Castres and the King's
confessor ; Simon Bonnet, afterwards Bishop of
Senlis ; and the Bishops of Macquelonne and
of Poitiers. Among the lesser dignitaries of
the Church was present a Dominican monk,
named Sequier, whose account of the proceed-
ings, and the notes kept by Gobert Thibault,
an equerry of the King, are the only records of
the examination extant. The scantiness of these
accounts is all the more to be regretted, inas-
much as Joan frequently referred to the ques-
tions made to her, and her answers, at this trial
at Poitiers, during her trial at Rouen ; and they
would probably have thrown much light on the
obscure passages of her early years, for at
Poitiers she had not to guard against hostile
inquisition, and, doubtless, gave her questioners
a full and free record of her past life.

TOUR D'HORLOGE— CHINON.

THE CALL.

11

The first conference between these prelates,
lawyers, and Joan lasted two hours. At first
they appeared to doubt the Maid, but her
frank and straightforward answers to all the
questions put her impressed them with the truth
of her character. They were, according to the
old chronicles, 'grandement ebahis comme une
ce simple bergere jeune fille pouvait ainsi
repondre.'

One of her examiners, Jean Lombard by
name, a professor of theology from the Univer-
sity of Paris, in asking Joan what had induced
her to visit the King, was told she had been en-
couraged so to do by 'her voices' — those voices
which had taught her the great pity felt by
her for the land of France ; that although at
first she had hesitated to obey them, they be-
came ever more urgent, and commanded her
to go.

'And, Joan,' then asked a doctor of theology
named William Aymeri, 'why do you require
soldiers, if you tell us that it is God's will that
the Engflish shall be driven out of France? If
that is the case, then there is no need of soldiers,
for surely, if it be God's will that the enemy
should fly the country, go they must ! '

To which Joan answered : ' The soldiers will
do the fighting, and God will give the victory !'

Sequier, whose account of the proceedings
has come down to us, then asked Joan in what
language the Saints addressed her.

' In a better one than yours,' she answered.

Now Brother Sequier, although a doctor of

c

34 JOAN OF ARC.

theology, had a strong and disagreeable accent
which he had brought from his native town of
Limoges, and, doubtless, the other clerks and
priests tittered not a little at Joan's answer.
Sequier appears to have been somewhat irri-
tated, and sharply asked Joan whether she
believed in God.

'Better than you do,' was the reply; but
Sequier, who is described as a ' bien aigre
homme,' was not yet satisfied, and returned to
the charge. Like the Pharisees, he wished for a
sign, and he declared that he for one could not
believe in the sacred mission of the Maid, did
she not show them all a sign, nor without such
a sign could he advise the King to place any
one in peril, merely on the strength of Joan's
declaration and word.

To this Joan said that she had not come to
Poitiers to show signs, but she added : —

' Let me go to Orleans, and there you will
be able to judge by the signs I shall show
wherefore I have been sent on this mission.
Let the force of soldiers with me be as small
as you choose; but to Orleans I must go!'

For three weeks did these conferences last.
Nothing was neglected to discover every detail
regarding Joan's life : of her childhood, of her
family and her friends. And one of the Coun-
cil visited Domremy to ferret out all the details
that could be got at. Needless to say, all that
he heard only redounded to the Maid's credit ;
nothing transpired which was not honourable to
the Maid's character and way of life, and in

THE CALL. 35

keeping with the testimony Jean de Metz and
Poulangy had given the King at Chinon.

One day she said to one of the Council,
Pierre de Versailles, ' I believe you have come
to put questions to me, and although I know
not A or B, what I do know is that I am
sent by the King of Heaven to raise the siege
of Orleans, and to conduct the King to Rheims,
in order that he shall be there anointed and
crowned.'

On another occasion she addressed the fol-
lowing words in a letter which John Erault took
down from her dictation — to write she knew not
— to the English commanders before Orleans :
' In the name of the King of Heaven I com-
mand you, Suffolk [spelt in the missive Suffort],
Scales [Classidas], and Pole [La Poule], to return
to England.'

One sees by the above missive that the
French spelling of English names was about as
correct in the fifteenth as it is in the nineteenth
century.

What stirred the curiosity of Joan's examiners
was to try and discover whether her reported
visions and her voices were from Heaven or
not. This was the crucial question over which
these churchmen and lawyers puzzled their
brains during those three weeks of the blithe
spring-tide at Poitiers. How were they to
arrive at a certain knowledge regarding those
mystic portents ? All the armoury of theologi-
cal knowledge accumulated by the doctors of the
Church was made use of; but this availed less

36 yOAN OF ARC.

than the simple answers of Joan in bringing
conviction to these puzzled pundits that her
call was a heavenly one. When they produced
piles of theological books and parchments, Joan
simply said : ' God's books are to me more than
all these.'

When at length it was officially notified that
the Parliament approved and sanctioned the mis-
sion of the Maid, and that nothing against her
had appeared which could in any way detract
from the faith she professed to follow out her
mission of deliverance, the rejoicing in the good
town of Poitiers was extreme. The glad news
spread rapidly over the country, and fluttered
the hearts of the besieged within the walls of
Orleans. The cry was, ' When will the angelic
one arrive ? ' The brave Dunois — Bastard of
Orleans — in command of the French in that
city, had ere this sent two knights, Villars and
Jamet de Tilloy, to hear all details about the
Maid, whose advent was so eagerly looked for-
ward to. These messengers of Dunois had
seen and spoken with Joan, and on their re-
turn to Orleans Dunois allowed them to tell
the citizens their impressions of the Maid.
Those people at Orleans were now as enthusi-
astic about the deliverance as the inhabitants
at Poitiers, who had seen her daily for three
weeks in their midst. All who had been ad-
mitted to her presence left her with tears of
joy and devotion ; her simple and modest be-
haviour, blended with her splendid enthusiasm,
won every heart. Her manner and modesty,

THE CALL.

37

and the gay brightness of her answers, had also
won the suffrage of the priests and lawyers, and
the military were as much delighted as surprised
at her good sense when the talk fell on subjects
relating to their trade.

It was on or about the 20th of April 1429
that Joan of Arc left Poitiers and proceeded to
Tours. The King had now appointed a mili-
tary establishment to accompany her ; and her
two younger brothers, John and Peter, had
joined her. The faithful John de Metz and
Bertrand de Poulangy were also at her side.
The King had selected as her esquire John
d'Aulon ; besides this she was followed by two
noble pages, Louis de Contes and Raimond.
There were also some men-at-arms and a
couple of heralds. A priest accompanied the
little band. Brother John Pasquerel, who was
also Joan's almoner. The King had further-
more made Joan a gift of a complete suit of
armour, and the royal purse had armed her
retainers.

During her stay at Poitiers Joan prepared
her standard, on which were emblazoned the
lilies of France, in gold on a white ground.
On one side of the standard was a painting re-
presenting the Almighty seated in the heavens,
in one hand bearing a globe, flanked by two
kneeling angels, each holding a fleur-de-lis. Be-
sides this standard, which Joan greatly prized,
she had had a smaller banner made, with the
Annunciation painted on it. This standard was
triangular in form ; and, in addition to those

38 JOAN OF ARC.

mentioned, she had a banneret on which was re-
presented the Crucifixion. These three flags or
pennons were all symbolic of the Maid's mission :
the large one was to be used on the field of battle
and for general command ; the smaller, to rally, in
case of need, her followers around her; and pro-
bably she herself bore one of the smaller pennons.
The names 'Jesu' and 'Maria' were inscribed in
large golden letters on all the flags.

The national royal standard of France till
this period had been a dark blue, and it is not
unlikely that the awe and veneration which these
white flags of the Maid, with their sacred pictures
on them, was the reason of the later French kings
adopting the white ground as their characteristic
colour on military banners.

Joan never made use of her sword, and bore
one of the smaller banners into the fight. She
declared she would never use her sword, although
she attached a deep importance to it.

' My banner,' she declared, ' I love forty
times as much as my sword ! '

And yet the sword which she obtained from
the altar at Fierbois was in her eyes a sacred
weapon.

CHAPTER II.

THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS.

TT will be now necessary to go back in our
-*- story to the commencement of the siege by
the English of the town of Orleans, in order to
understand the work which Joan of Arc had pro-
mised to accomplish. Orleans was the place of
the utmost importance ; not merely as being the
second city in France, but as forming the ' tete
du pont ' for the passage of the river Loire. The
French knew that were it to fall into the hands
of the English the whole of France would soon
become subject to the enemy.

The town was strongly fortified ; huge towers
of immense thickness, and three stories in height,
surrounded by deep and wide moats, encircled the
city. The only bridge then in existence was also
strongly defended with towers, called ' Les Tour-
nelles,' while at the end of the town side of the
bridge were large 'bastilles,' powerful fortresses
which dated from the year 141 7, when Henry V.
threatened Orleans after his triumphal march
through Normandy. In 142 1 the Orleanists de-
fied the victor of Agincourt : again they were in
the agony of a desperate defence against their in-
vaders, ready to sustain all the horrors of a siege.

40 JOAN OF ARC.

Equally keen and determined were the Eng-
lish leaders to take Orleans, which they rightly
considered as the key of what remained uncon-
quered to them in France. Both countries looked
anxiously on as the siege progressed. Salisbury
commanded the English ; he had been up to this
point successful in taking all the places of im-
portance in the neighbourhood of Orleans, and
that portion of the valley of the Loire was
commanded by his forces, both above and below
Orleans.

On the approach of the enemy, the inhabi-
tants of Orleans turned out to strengthen the
outer fortifications, and to place cannon and cata-
pults on the walls and ramparts. The priests
on this occasion worked as hard as the other
citizens, and even the women and children helped
with a will.

Besides Dunois, who commanded the besieged
garrison, was Raoul de Gaucourt, who had de-
fended Harfleur in 141 5 ; he had but recently
returned from imprisonment in England, and
was burning to avenge his captivity. La Hire,
Xaintrailles, Coulant, Coaraze, and Armagnac
were among the defenders of Orleans. Many
Gascons belonging to the Marshal-Saint Severe
and soldiers from Brittany helped to swell the
forces of the besieged.

It was on the 12th day of October (1428)
that Salisbury crossed the Loire and established
his besieging force at the village of Portereau,
in front of the strongly defended bridge. In the
meanwhile the besieged had razed the houses

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 41

and the convent of St. Augustin, in order to
prevent the enemy from entrenching themselves
so near the city gates. Salisbury, however,
threw up fortifications on the site of St. Augus-
tin's, and placed a battery of guns opposite to
the bridge and its 'bastilles,' whence he was
able to bombard the town with huge stones.
The English also placed mines below the bridge
and the fortresses of the Tournelles.

On the 2 1 St, an assault was made on the
bridge and its defences, which was vigorously
repulsed ; the whole population were in arms,
and manned the walls ; the women fought by the
side of their husbands and brothers. After a
severe fight of four hours, the besiegers were
forced to withdraw.

The Tournelles were now mined and counter-
mined, and were soon found to be untenable.
The besieged then abandoned this fortification,
and retired further back towards the centre of
the bridge, which, as well as its approaches, was
defended by towers. Part of the bridge on the
side near the English was blown up, and a draw-
bridee, which could be raised or lowered at
pleasure, was thrown across the open space.

Salisbury was satisfied with the result of that
day's fighting, for he knew that, once he had the
command of the northern side of the tower, he
could take it when necessary from that quarter.
What he aimed at for the present was to prevent
all communication between the town and the
south of France. Holding the bridge, he could
prevent relief from coming to the city, and when

42 JOAN OF ARC.

the moment arrived he would be able to throw
his men with certain success upon it from the
northern side.

The evening of the day in which he had
made so successful an attack, Salisbury mounted
into the Tournelles in order to inspect thence the
city which lay beneath him. While gazing on it, a
stray cannon shot struck him on the face ; he was
carried, mortally wounded, from the place. That
fatal shot was said to have been fired by a lad,
who, finding a loaded cannon on the ramparts,
had discharged it. For the English, it was the
deadliest shot of the whole war.

Readers of Shakespeare will remember that,
in the first part of Henry VI., the Master Gunner
(no doubt that very ' Maitre Jean ' whose fame
was great in the besieged town) and his boy
are introduced on the scene, and that the boy
fires the shot which proved fatal both to Salis-
bury and Sir Thomas Gargrave. The promi-
nent place given to this French Master Gunner
in the English play shows what a high reputa-
tion Maitre Jean must have had, even among the
English, at the siege.

Salisbury's death, occurring a few days after he
received the wound, caused the siege to languish.
Glansdale succeeded Salisbury in the command ;
but it was not until the doughty Talbot and Lord
Scales appeared on the scene that siege operations
recommenced with vigour.

The great pounding match then began again ;
the huge stone shot of the English, which weighed
one hundred and sixty-four livres, came tumbling

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 43

about the heads of the besieged, to which can-
nonade the French promptly replied by a heavy
fire. They had a kind of bomb, of which they
were not a little proud, wherefrom they fired
iron shot of one hundred and twenty livres in
weight. The Master of Gunners of Shake-
speare's play, whose name was John de Mons-
teschere, made also extraordinary practice with
his culverin ; and he could pick off marked men
in the Tournelles, as, for the misfortune of the
English, had been proved in the case of Salisbury.
At times Master John would sham dead, and,
just as the English were congratulating them-
selves on his demise, would reappear, and again
use his culverin with deadly effect.

On the last day but one of the year (1428),
the English had been reinforced, and were
now commanded by William de la Pole, Earl,
and afterwards Duke of Suffolk, under whose
command acted Suffolk's brother, John de la
Pole, Lord Scales, and Lancelot de Lisle. In
order to maintain touch with his troops posted at
the Tournelles, Suffolk threw up flanking batteries
on the northern side of the town. To Suffolk's
already large force Sir John Fastolfe brought a
force of twelve hundred men, in the month of
January (1429).

The number of troops mustered by the be-
sieged and besiegers was as follows : —

On the side of the English, there were
quartered at the Tournelles five hundred men,
under the command of Glansdale ; three hundred
under Talbot ; twelve hundred with Fastolfe.

44 JOAN OF ARC.

Including those who had come with Suffolk
at the commencement of the siege, the English
force amounted to four thousand five hundred
men.

On the side of the besieged, excluding the
armed citizens, who were from three to four
thousand strong, was a garrison numbering be-
tween six and seven hundred men ; also some
thousand soldiers had been thrown into the city
between the middle of October 1428 and the
January following.

Both in strength of position, and as regards
the number of their troops, the French had the
advantage. The comparative weakness of the
English force — which, all told, could only count
about four thousand men to carry on the siege
— is to be accounted for by the garrisons which
were left in the conquered places over the north
and south of the country.

The siege was weakly conducted during the
winter — a series of skirmishes from the bastilles
or towers thrown up by the besiegers led to
little result on either side ; and it was not till
the month of February that a decisive engage-
ment took place.

Near Rouvray a battle was fought, which is
known by the singular appellation of the Battle
of the Herrings, from the circumstance that, at
that Lenten season, a huge convoy of fish was
being taken from the coast to Paris. In the
fight, the fish-laden barrels were overthrown,
and their contents scattered over the field ;
whence the name of the Batde of the Herrings.

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 45

During this engagement, in which the French
were defeated, fell, on the side of the French,
two noble Scots — John Stuart, the Constable of
Scotland, and his brother William.

After this action, the position of the besieged
in Orleans became more perilous, and the citizens,
despairing of help coming to them from Charles,
were inclined to call in aid from the Duke of
Burgundy. The east, north, and west of the
city were covered by the bastilles or huge
towers which the besiegers had thrown up, and
from which they could bombard the place ; and
the pressure on the devoted city waxed ever
stronger. By the month of April, Orleans was
girdled by a chain of fortresses, from which
the cannonade was incessant. The English gave
names of French towns to these huge towers
which threatened Orleans on every side ; one
they named Paris, another Rouen, and one other
they called London.

The thirty thousand men, women, and chil-
dren within the city walls were now beginning
to suffer from the horrors of a long siege. In
the town disturbances broke out, and the cry of
treachery was heard — that sure precursor of the
fears of the strong that the hardships of the
siege would undermine the patriotism of their
weaker citizens. But when things seemed at
their worst, succour was near at hand.

During those winter months the Queen-
mother, who had warmly interested herself in
Joan of Arc's mission, had, in the Castle of
Blois, been collecting troops and securing the

46 JOAN OF ARC.

services of some notable officers, including the
Duke of Alen9on. Towards the end of April
Joan arrived at Blois from Poitiers, accompanied
by the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault de
Chartres. On the 27th of April she left Blois
on her first warlike expedition.

No certain account of the numbers of troops
which accompanied the Maid has been kept.
Monstrelet gives the numbers at seven thousand;
but Joan, during her trial, asserted that she had
between ten and twelve thousand men committed
to her charge by the King. Joan's historian,
M. Wallon, points out that this may be an in-
correct entry made in the interest of the English
at the trial, as they naturally would wish the re-
lieving force to appear as large as possible. It
has even been placed as low as three thousand.
Among the officers who accompanied the Maid
was a Gascon knight, named La Hire, half
freebooter, half condottiere, a brave and reck-
less soldier, of whom it is recorded that, before
making a raid, he would offer up the following
prayer : —

' I pray my God to do for La Hire what La
Hire would do for Him, if He were Captain and
La Hire was God.'

From having been a mighty swearer, owing
to Joan of Arc's influence La Hire broke off
this habit, but, in order to give him some scope
for venting his temper, Joan allowed him to
swear by his stick.

These are but trivial details : still, they are
of interest as showing what influence a simple

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 47

village maiden like Joan was able to exert on
those who, from their position and habits of life,
might have been thought to be the last to tolerate
such interference. So changed, it is said, had this
rough warrior, La Hire, and many of his fellow-
soldiers become in their habits while with the
Maid, that they were happy to be able to kneel
by the side of the sainted maiden and partake in
her Lord's Sacrament of the Eucharist ; and then
to confess themselves to her good father con-
fessor, Peton de Xaintrailles, the Marshal de
Boussac, and the Seigneur de Rais.

Joan had the following letter despatched to
the Duke of Bedford : —

' In the name of Jesus and Mary — You, King
of England ; and you, Duke of Bedford [Beth-
fort], who call yourself Regent of France ; you,
William de la Pole ; you. Earl of Suffolk ; you,
John Lord Talbot [Thalebot] ; and you, Thomas
Lord Scales, who call yourselves Lieutenants of
the said Bedford, in the name of the King of
Heaven, render the keys of all the good towns
which you have taken and violated in France,
to the Maid sent hither by the King of Heaven.
She is ready to make peace if you will consent
to return and to pay for what you have taken.
And all of you, soldiers, and archers, and men-at-
arms, now before Orleans, return to your country,
in God's name. If this is not done. King of
England, I, as a leader in war, whenever I shall
meet with your people in France, will oblige
them to go whether they be willing or not ; and
if they go not, they will perish ; but if they will

48 JOAN OF ARC.

depart I will pardon them. I have come from
the King of Heaven to drive you out \botiter\
of France. And do not imagine that you will
ever permanently hold France, for the true heir,
King Charles, shall possess it, for it is God's
wish that it should belong to him. And this
has been revealed to him by the Maid, who will
enter Paris. If you will not obey, we shall make
such a stir ^ferons tin si gros hakaye] as hath
not happened these thousand years in France.
The Maid and her soldiers will have the victory.
Therefore the Maid is willing that you, Duke
of Bedford, should not destroy yourself

And Joan finishes this strange effusion by
proposing to Bedford that they should combine
in making a holy war for Christianity !

This letter, written 'in the name of the Maid,'
was dated on a Tuesday in Holy Week. The
address ran thus : ' To the Duke of Bedford,
so called Regent of the Kingdom of France, or
to his Lieutenants, now before the town of
Orleans.'

Doubtless the reference to the deed of arms
which, once again at peace together, might be
accomplished by the combined English and
French armies, was an idea which seems to
have floated in Joan's enthusiastic imagination,
that the day might come when the two foremost
nations in Christendom would fight together for
the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.

As might be expected, this letter was received
by the English with gibes and jeers, which was
pardonable ; but what was not sO was the bad

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS.

49

treatment of the messenger who had brought it
'to the English camp. He was Icept prisoner,
and, if some rather doubtful French writers of the
day are to be believed, it was seriously debated
whether or not he should be burnt. Let us
trust this is but an invention of the enemy.

Joan, before leaving Blois, insisted on the
dismissal of all camp followers — such bad bag-
gage was certainly well left behind, and could
not have followed an army led by one who,
night and morning, had an altar erected, around
which her hallowed flags were placed, and
where the Maid, and those willing, took the
Sacrament at the head of the army. It must
have been a striking sight during that spring-
time — that army, led by a maiden all clad in
white armour, and mounted on a black charger,
surrounded by a brilliant band of knights, riding
along the pleasant fields of Touraine, then in
their first livery of brilliant green. And a strik-
ing sight it must have been, when, at the close
of the long day's march, the tents were pitched
and the altar raised, the ofSciating priests grouped
about it and the sacred pictured standards wav-
ing above, while the solemn chant was raised, and
the soldiers knelt around.

One can well think how ready were those
soldiers to follow Joan wherever she would lead
them, and it is not improbable that such a
crusade as she dreamt of, had it been possible, in
which the two nations, so closely connected by
religious feeling, and so closely united by posi-
tion, but so long enemies owing to the rapacity

D

50 JOAN OF ARC.

and greed of their kings, might have again placed
the cross on the battlements of the Holy City,
under the leadership of her whom her country-
men rightly called 'The Angelic'

Joan rode out of Blois bearing her pennon
in her hand, and as she rode she chanted the
' Veni Creator! The sacred strain was taken up
by those who followed, and thus passed the
Maid forth on her first great deed of deliver-
ance.

During the whole of the first night Joan re-
mained, as was her custom when she had no
women about her, in her armour.

It was the Maid's wish to enter Orleans
from the northern side, but the officers with
her thought this would be a great imprudence,
and followed the opposite bank of the river.
Passing through Beaugency and Meung, they
went on by Saint Die, Saint Laurent, and Clery,
without meeting with any attack from the enemy
who occupied these places. On arriving at a
place called Olivet, they were within the neigh-
bourhood of the beleaguered city. Below them
rose the English bastille towers ; beyond, the
walls, towers, and steeples of Orleans.

Joan had hoped that the city could have been
entered without further difficulty ; she now found
that not only the river lay between her and the
town, but that the English were in force on all
sides. She wished that the nearest of these
bastilles, at Saint Jean le Blanc, should be
stormed, and the river forded there ; but this
scheme was judged by her companions- in-arms

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 51

to be too perilous, and Joan had again to comply
with the opinion of the officers.

Riding to the eastwards, and skirting the river
some four miles below the town, she and her
knights forded it at a spot where some low long
islands, or 'eyots' as we call them on the Thames,
lay in this part of the Loire. On one of these,
called risle aux Bourdons, the provisions and
stores for the beleaguered city were shipped and
transhipped, and carried down to Orleans when
the wind lay in that quarter.

It was at Reuilly that Dunois met the Maid,
still chafing from her thwarted plan of attacking
the English in their stronghold at Saint Jean le
Blanc, and she appears to have shown him her
displeasure. While this interview took place
the wind changed, and the provision boats,
which, owing to the wind being contrary, had
not been able to make the islands, were now
enabled to leave the city. They soon arrived,
were laden with provisions, corn, and even cattle
embarked on them, and, when thus provisioned,
returned to Orleans by the canal on the left bank
of the Loire, and successfully arrived at the city
end of the broken bridge, whence the provisions
and live stock were passed into the town.

The river was too much in flood to allow
of the army being taken across, nor could a
bridge of boats be made, owing to the height
of the waters. Joan, however, was determined
to enter Orleans, flood or no flood, for she
knew what the moral effect of her appearing
to the townspeople would be. Accompanied by

52 JOAN OF ARC.

Dunois, La Hire, and some two hundred lances,
just after darkness had hidden her movements
from the enemy, she left Reuilly and entered
the city.

Preceded by a great banner, the Maid of
Orleans, as she may now be called, with Dunois
by her side, and followed by her knights and
men-at-arms, rode slowly through the streets,
filled with a crowd almost delirious in its joy
at welcoming within its walls its long-looked-
for Deliverer. The people clung to her, kiss-
ing her knees and feet, and, according to the
old chroniclers, behaved as if God Himself had
appeared among them. So eager was the throng
to approach her, that in the press one of her
standards was set on fire by a flambeau. After
returning thanks for the delivery of her country-
men in the cathedral, Joan was made welcome
at the house of the treasurer of the imprisoned
Duke of Orleans. This citizen's name was James
Boucher ; and here she lodged, with her brothers,
and the two faithful knights who had accom-
panied her during her journey from Vaucou-
leurs to Chinon.

A vaulted room in this house is still shown,
which purports to have been that occupied by
the Maid of Orleans. If it is the same buildinsf

o

it has been much modernised, although a beauti-
ful specimen of the domestic Gothic of the early
part of the fifteenth century, known as the house
of Agnes Sorel, remains much in the condition
that it must have been in during the famous year
of deliverance, 1429.

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 3

Although Orleans, by the action of Joan of
' Arc, had been succoured for the time, the enemy
was still at its gates, and Joan's mission was but
half accomplished. The aspect of affairs since
the 29th of April was, however, greatly changed
in favour of the French, and the j'oies of be-
sieged and besiegers changed. Joan's arrival
had infused a fresh spirit of enthusiasm and
patriotism into . the citizens, and the English
were no longer feared. We have Dunois's
authority for the fact that whereas, up to that
time, two hundred English could put eight hun-
dred French to the rout, now five hundred
French soldiers were prepared to meet the
entire English army.

On the 13th of April, hostilities had recom-
menced. Four hundred men, commanded by
Florent d'llliers, made a sortie against the
English near the trenches at Saint Pouair, driv-
ing them into their quarters. But the success
was not followed up, and appears to have been
undertaken without Joan of Arc's advice. To the
heralds that she sent into the English camp only
jeers and taunts were returned ; and already
the threat of burning her when caught was
made use of Joan was, however, not to be
deterred by menaces and insults from doing
all she could to prevent unnecessary loss of
life. On one occasion she rode out half-way
across the bridge, to where there stood a cruci-
fix called La Belle Croix, within speaking
distance of the English in the Tournelles.
Thence she summoned Glansdale and his men

54 JOAN OF ARC.

to surrender, promising that their lives should
be spared. They answered with derisive shouts
and villainous abuse. Still commanding her
patience, which was only equalled by her courage,
and before returning to the town, she told them
that, in spite of their boasting, the time was
near at hand when they would be driven forth,
and that their leader would never see England
again. That they feared the Maid was evident,
in spite of the insults with which they greeted
her ; at any rate, no attempt was made to attack
her : even when almost alone, she came close to
their fortifications.

Meanwhile Dunois left for Blois to bring up
the bulk of the army, while Joan remained in
Orleans, encouraging its inhabitants by her confi-
dence, faith, and courage. The people, writes the
chronicler of the siege, were never sated with the
sight of the Maid : ' ils ne pouvaient saouler de
la voir,' he graphically says.

A second ineffectual effort was made by Joan,
this time at a place called the Croix Morin, to
negotiate with the English, she again promis-
ing them quarter if they would capitulate, but,
as might be expected, with no better result
than before.

On the 2nd of May, followed by a vast
throng, Joan of Arc rode out along the forts
of the enemy, and after closely inspecting their
defences returned to vespers at the Church of
Sainte-Croix. Certainly among the people there
was no want of belief in, and enthusiastic devo-
tion to, the Maid ; but she had already enemies

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. SS

among the entourage of the King. We have
already alluded to Tremoille's feelings with
regard to her and her mission. A still more
formidable enemy was the Chancellor of France,
the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault de Char-
tres ; he and Tremoille worked in concert to
undermine all the prestige which Joan's success
in revictualling Orleans had caused at Court.
The historian Quicherat, whose work on Joan
of Arc is by far the most complete and reliable,
considers this man to have been an astute poli-
tician, without any moral strength or courage.
When with Joan of Arc, he seems to have shown
firmness and even enthusiasm in her mission,
but he sank into the role of a poltroon when
her influence was withdrawn. ■ Instead of hast-
ening the despatch of the reinforcements from
Blois to Orleans, he threw delay in the way ;
he seems to have hesitated in letting these
troops join those under the Maid, for fear that
were she to gain a thorough success his in-
fluence at Court would be weakened. When
Joan fell into the hands of her foes, the Arch-
bishop had the incredible baseness publicly to
show his pleasure, declaring that her capture by
the enemy was a proof of Divine justice.

It was not till the 4th of May, and not
until Dunois had ridden in hot haste from Blois,
that at length the aid, so long and eagerly
expected, arrived.

Joan rode to meet the succouring army
some two miles out of the city, bearing her
flag, accompanied by La Hire and others of her

56 JOAN OF ARC.

knights. After a joyful meeting, they turned,
riding right through the enemy's Hnes and
along- the fortified bastilles occupied by the
English. Whether it was fear, or superstition
mixed with fear, not a man from the English
side stirred, although the English outnumbered
the French. It seemed that a terror had seized
on the enemy as they saw her, whom they
called the Sorceress, ride by in her white
panoply, bearing aloft her mystic banner.

The English had now run short of supplies,
and eagerly awaited the arrival of Sir John Fas-
tolfe, who was on his road to Orleans. Joan
of Arc felt uneasy, lest she might not be able
to cut off Fastolfe and his supplies, and she
playfully threatened Dunois with his instant exe-
cution if he failed to tell her of the moment
he learnt of his approach. Her anxiety was
well founded, for the attack commenced before
she had been apprised of it. She had lain
down for a short repose one afternoon, when
she heard the sounds of a cannonade. She
instantly ordered her squire d'Aulon to arm her,
as she must immediately attack the English ;
but whether those at the Tournelles, or the
advancing force under Fastolfe, she could not
yet tell.

While arming, a great clamour rang through
the town : the enemy were said to be at hand,
and the battle already engaged. Hastily throw-
ing on her armour, with the assistance of her
hostess and d'Aulon, she dashed off on her
horse, and had only time to snatch her flag, as

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 57

it was handed to her from a window, so impetuous
was she to enter the fray.

As she galloped down the street the sparks
flew from the stones, through the High Street
and past the cathedral, and out by the Burgundy
Gate. The action had already been raging, and
the wounded were being borne back into the
town. It was the first time the Maid came face
to face with such grisly sights — the agony of the
wounded, the blood and gaping wounds. Her
squire, d'Aulon, who has left some record of
that day, says how much she grieved over the
wounded as they were carried past her ; her
beloved countrymen bleeding and dying affected
her deeply. As her page writes, she said she
could not see French blood without her hair
rising with horror at the sight.

Before she reached the field the day had
been lost and won, the English were in full
retreat, and the battle now lay around the
bastilles of Saint Loup. About a mile to the
north-east of the town were the Englishmen ;
strongly entrenched, the place commanded that
portion of the river which Talbot had garrisoned
^/^ *^ with some three hundred of his best troops.
Joan now gave instructions that no aid should
reach this portion of the English defences from
the adjacent bastilles. All around the fight
raged, and Joan was soon in the hottest of
the engagement, encouraging her soldiers, her
flag in her hand. Dismounting, she stood on
the edge of the earthwork, beyond which the
English were at bay.

S8 JOAN OF ARC.

Talbot, seeing his men hard pressed, gave
orders for a sortie to be made from one of
the other towers, named Paris, and thus cause
a diversion, while another force attacked the
French in their rear. This expedient, however,
failed, for a fresh force appeared at this juncture
from Orleans, led by Boussac and De Graville,
who beat back the attack of the English. The
English troops within the fortress of Saint Loup
were slain or taken. Joan herself rescued some
of these, and placed them under her protec-
tion ; caring for them in the house she was
staying in.

At the close of the day, on returning into
the town, Joan told the people that they might
count on being free from the enemy in five
days' time, and that by that time not a single
Englishman would remain before Orleans. No
wonder that the joy-bells rang out in victorious
clamour during all that night in May, the eve
of the Ascension.

On the following day no hostilities occurred.
Joan again had a letter sent to the English,
summoning them as before to surrender and to
quit their forts ; she said this was the third
and the last time that she could give them a
chance of escaping with their lives. On this
occasion she made use of a new way of com-
municating with the foe ; she tied the letter to
an arrow, which was discharged into the English
lines. No answer was received in return.

It was now determined that the next attack
against the English should be made from the

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 59

left bank of the river, where they were strongly
fortified at the Bastille des Augustins, a little
further down the Loire than the Tournelles. On
the opposite side this fortress communicated with
the Boulevard of Saint Prive, as well as with
the strong fortress of Saint Laurent, near which
a small island, which exists no longer, called the
Isle of Charlemagne, kept open their connections
on both sides of the Loire. To the east, on
the same side of the river, a fortress, that of
Saint Jean le Blanc, which had been abandoned
on the approach of Joan, had since been re-
occupied by the English. It was at this spot
that the next and all-important attack was
directed to be made.

The French forces crossed the river over
an island called Saint Aignan. The distance was
so narrow between the river bank on the town
side and this island, that a couple of boats
moored together served as a bridge. When
Saint Jean le Blanc was reached, it was found
deserted by the English, Glansdale having left
it in order to concentrate his forces at the
Tournelles. Joan led the attack. At first the
French fought badly ; they had been seized
by a panic, believing that a strong force of
the enemy were coming down on them from
Saint Prive. Rallying her men, Joan threw
herself on the English, and drove them back
into the Augustins. She was now eagerly
followed by the soldiers.

The first barricade was carried in a hand-to-
hand fight, and soon the French flags waved

6o JOAN OF ARC.

above the fortress so long held by the enemy.
The few English able to escape retired to the
Tournelles. Eager to carry on the success of
the attack, and to prevent delay, Joan ordered
that the fort of the Augustins be fired, with
the booty it contained.

The victors, who only numbered three thou-
sand strong, captured six hundred prisoners,
one third were slain of the English, and two
hundred French prisoners recovered.

This was the second occasion on which the
Maid had carried all before her.

The day was closing, and the attack on the
Tournelles had to be deferred for that evening.
That night Joan of Arc said to her almoner :
' Rise early to-morrow, for we shall have a
hard day's work before us. Keep close to me,
for I shall have much to do, more than I have
ever had to do yet. I shall be wounded ; my
blood will flow ! '

This prophetic speech of the Maid is among
the most curious facts relating to her life ; for
not only did she, during her trial at Rouen,
tell her judges that she had been aware that
she would be wounded on that day, and even
knew the position beforehand of the wound,
but that she had known it would occur a long
time before, and had told the King about it.
A letter is extant in the Public Library at
Brussels, written on the 22nd of April (1429),
by the Sire de Rotslaer, dated from Lyons, in
which Joan's prophecy regarding her wound is
mentioned. This letter was written fifteen days

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 6i

before the date (7th of May) of the engagement
when that event occurred. A facsimile of the
passage in this letter referring to Joan's pro-
phecy appears in the illustrated edition of M.
Wallon's Life of Joan of Arc.

Very early on the following day, Saturday,
the 7th of May, it appears that an attempt
was made to prevent the Maid from starting
for the field, as, at a council held on the
evening before by the officers, it had been
considered more prudent, before renewing the
attack on the English fortifications, to await
fresh reinforcements from the King. When
this was reported to Joan, she said: 'You have
taken your counsel, and I have received mine,'
and at break of day she was ready, armed and
prepared for the attack. Before starting, her
host wished her to eat some fish, an ' alose, '
which had just been brought to him. ' Keep
it, ' said Joan with a smile, ' till the evening,
and I will bring with me a " Godon " who will
eat his share of it.' This sobriquet of 'Godon'
was evidently the generic term for the English,
as far back as the early years of the fifteenth
century, and may have been centuries before
the French designation for our countrymen.

Thus, full of spirits and with a brave heart,
the Maid rode off" to meet the foe. When she
reached the gate called Burgundy, she found it
closed by order of De Gaucourt, Grand Master
of the King's Household, who had done so at
the instigation of those officers who wished
the attack on the English deferred until fresh

62 ■■' JOAN OF ARC.

reinforcements arrived. But the Maid was not
to be beaten and kept back even by barred
gates.

'You are doing a bad deed,' she indignantly
said to those about the gate, ' and whether you
wish it or not, my soldiers shall pass.'

The gate was opened, and Joan, followed
by her men, galloped to where some troops
who had been left in possession of the fortifica-
tions taken on the previous day were stationed.
The attack on the Tournelles commenced as
soon as Joan arrived — it was then between six
and seven in the morning. Meanwhile Dunois,
La Hire, and the principal forces from the
town came up. A desperate struggle ensued ;
both sides knew that, whatever the result, that
day would decide the fate of Orleans — even
that of the war.

The French were fighting under the eyes of
their countrymen, who manned the walls, and
under the guidance of a leader they already
regarded as more than human — and never had
they fought so well, during that long and
bloody century of warfare, as they did on that
day.

The English, on the other hand, knew that
if they were beaten out of the Tournelles their
defeat would be complete, and they too fought
with desperate courage.

Down into the ditches rushed the French,
and up the sides of the glacis ; scaling-ladders
were placed against the walls, to which the
men upon them clung like a swarm of bees.

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 63

The defenders met them with showers of arrows
and shot, and hurled them back with lance and
hatchets. Constantly beaten back, they re-
turned as constantly to the charge. For six
hours this fight lasted, and weariness and dis-
couragement fell on the French. Joan, who
had been all these hours in the thick of the
engagement, seeing her men were losing heart,
redoubled her efforts ; and, helping to raise a
scaling-ladder, she placed it against the para-
pet of one of the towers. While thus en-
gaged she was struck by a bolt from a cross-
bow, between her shoulder and neck. The
wound was a severe one ; she fell, and was
carried out of the press. Although she suffered
acutely, she had the nerve to draw the arrow
from the wound. She refused to have the
wound 'charmed,' as some of those standing
around her suggested, saying she would sooner
die than do anything that might be displeasing
in the sight of Heaven. A compress, steeped
in oil, was then applied, and it staunched the
bleeding. She was faint and unnerved, and, as
she seemed to feel her death was near, made
her confession to her priest.

Still the Tournelles held out in spite of these
repeated attacks, and Dunois, as the shadows
lengthened, was on the point of calling back his
forces and sounding the retreat. Joan, in the
meanwhile, had been withdrawn from the fight-
ing, and placed in a meadow at some distance
from the carnage ; but when she heard that the
troops were about to be recalled from their

64 JOAN OF ARC.

attack on the Tournelles, she seemed to forget
her wound, and, making her way to Dunois,
implored him not to give up the fight. She
assured him that she was certain they would
even yet be victorious. In a few stirring sen-
tences she rallied the men to fresh efforts, and
told them that now or never would they con-
quer ; the English, she declared, could not hold
out much longer. Mounting her horse, and
with flag unfurled, she again led the van ; to
those near her she said, ' Watch my standard ;
when it reaches the walls the place will be
ours.'

The struggle that ensued was fierce and
decisive. Inspired by the valour of Joan, the
French, who appeared as fresh as before her
wound, stormed the bastions and towers of
the Tournelles with tremendous energy. Rein-
forcements had meanwhile arrived from the
town, and these attacked the Tournelles in the
rear. Passing over the broken arches of the
bridge by means of ladders thrown across the
masonry, the first man to reach the other bank
was a knight of Rhodes, Nicolas de Giresme.
Attacked from two sides, the English still held
the Tournelles with bull-dog tenacity ; but the
sight of the witch and sorceress, as they con-
sidered Joan, and who they thought had met
with a mortal hurt, leading the soldiers with
unabated courage, caused a panic to spread
through their ranks ; and when a sudden shout
of victory proclaimed that the white and golden
banner had at length struck the walls of the

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 65

fortress, the doom of the Toumelles had
arrived.

Clear above the din of battle rang out the
triumphant voice of the Maid : ' The victory is
ours ! ' she cried.

Seeing the day was lost, the English now
attempted to escape destruction by swimming
the river ; others threw themselves on a bridge,
which, however, having been set on fire by the
French, only caused those who hoped to cross
to fall either into the flames or into the river
below.

Glansdale, the English leader, who had grossly
insulted Joan but a few days before, was among
those who were drowning in the Loire. Seeing
his peril, Joan of Arc attempted to save him,
but Glansdale was swept, before her aid could
reach him, down the stream, never more to
return to his own land again, as Joan had pro-
phesied.

Five hundred English perished either in the
Tournelles or were drowned in attempting to
escape ; the rest were made prisoners by the
French.

Darkness had now fallen, and although Joan
had been taking part in the battle for more than
a dozen hours, and had besides been grievously
hurt, she would not leave the field till late in
the night, in case the English at the Bastille of
Saint Laurent should be inclined to avenge the
fall of the Tournelles, and the victory over their
comrades. But for that day, at all events, the
English had had enough of fighting ; ' ils n'en

E

66 JOAN OF ARC.

avaient une vouloir ' for more, as the old chroni-
cler quaintly expresses himself.

Riding back across the bridge which the
citizens had in the meanwhile partially restored,
Joan re-entered the city which her splendid
courage had rescued from the English. ' God
knows,' writes Perceval de Cagny, 'with what
joy she was received ' ; and our English his-
torian of those days. Hall, has left the following
graphic account of the joy that went out from
the people of Orleans to their saviour : —

' After the siege was thus broken up, to
tell you what triumphs were made in the city
of Orleans, what wood was spent in fire, what
wine was drunk in houses, what songs were
sung in the streets, what melody was made in
taverns, what rounds were danced in large and
broad places, what lights were set up in the
churches, what anthems were sung in chapels,
and what joy was showed in every place — it
were a long work, and yet no necessary cause.
For they did as we in like case would have
done ; and we, being in like estate, would have
done as they did.'

All that day Joan of Arc had eaten nothing,
and her strength must have been more than
mortal to have sustained the heat, fatigue, and,
above all, the anguish of her wound. At length
she was able to find some repose with her kind
hosts, and, after taking a little bread dipped in
wine, she retired to enjoy her well-earned rest.

Orleans was now delivered, as the citizens
found on waking the next morning after the

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 67

battle, when the joyful news spread through the
town that the English had abandoned the bas-
tilles on the northern side of the city, leaving
all their sick, stores, artillery, and ammunition.
That day Lord Talbot must have used expres-
sions probably not as poetical as those put into
his mouth in the play of Henry VI. ; but doubt-
less far more forcible — for it was now that he,
for the first time, felt the bitterness of defeat,
the shame of turning his back on his enemy ;
that enemy whom, until now, he had, after so
many victories, almost grown to despise.

' My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel ;
I know not where I am, nor what I do :
A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal,
Drives back our troops, and conquers as she lists.'

But although retire he had to, Talbot's retreat
was made in perfect order, and in a kind of
defiant fashion. Ranging his forces near to
and facing the town, he seemed inclined to
make a further stand, if not to carry out an
attack against the city. Joan was prepared to
repel such an attack, but the English contented
themselves with a mere feint, a military demon-
stration.

The day was a Sunday, and Joan, ever loath
to fight on that day, refused to give the signal
for attack, saying that if the enemy chose to
begin an engagement they would be met and
defeated ; but that she could not sanction fight-
ing on that holy day. Prepared for whatever
micfht occur, the Maid of Orleans then ordered

68 JOAN OF ARC.

that Mass should be said at the head of her
troops.

When the religious act was over :

' Look,' she said, 'whether the English have
their faces or their backs turned to us.'

And when she heard that they were in full
retreat on Mehun-sur- Loire, she added, ' Let
them depart, in God's name : it is not His
wish that you should attack them to-day, and
you will meet them again.'

After an hour's halt, the English continued
to retreat, previously setting fire to their bas-
tilles, and carrying their prisoners with them.

The day that saw the deliverance of Orleans
was held for centuries as a national day of re-
joicing in the town, and seldom have the citizens
of any place had better cause for celebrating so
joyful and honourable an event. The siege
which Joan had thus brought to an end began
on the 1 2th of October (1428), and ended on
the 8th of May (1429). Ten days had suf-
ficed for the heroic Maid to raise the English
blockade.

Throughout France the effect of the news
of the deliverance of Orleans was prodigious ;
and although most of the English, no doubt,
believed that the result was owing to the instru-
mentality of the powers of darkness, many saw
in it the finger of God.

When the great news reached Paris on the
loth of May, Fauconbridge, a clerk of Parlia-
ment, made the following note in his register : —
' Ouis eventus fuerit novit Deus bellorum ' : and

DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 69

on the margin of the register he has traced a
little profile sketch of a woman in armour, hold-
ing in her right hand a pennon on which are
inscribed the letters I. H. S. In the other hand
she holds a sword. This parchment may still be
seen in the National Archives in Paris.

Joan, having accomplished her undertaking,
lost no time in returning to the King at Chinon.

CHAPTER III.

THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS.

T HAVING the now free and happy town to
J—' jubilate in its deHverance from the enemy,
Joan of Arc went by Blois and Tours to Chinon.
At Tours the King had come to meet the Maid.
When within sight of the King, Joan dismounted
and knelt before him. Charles came forward
bareheaded to meet her, and embraced her on
the cheek ; and, to use the words of the chroni-
cler, made her 'grande ckere.' It was on this
occasion that the King bestowed on Joan of Arc
the badge of the Royal Lily of France to place
in her coat-of-arms. The cosfnizance consisted
of a sword supporting a royal crown, with the
fleur-de-lis on either side.

Joan now strongly urged the King to lose
no time, but at once go to Rheims, to be
crowned. The fact of his being crowned and
proclaimed King of France would add infinitely
to his prestige and authority ; he would then no
longer be a mere Dauphin or King of Bourges,
as the English and Burgundians styled him.
But now Joan found how many at Court were
lukewarm. The council summoned to deliberate
on her proposal alleged that the King's powers

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 71

and purse would not enable him to make so
long and hazardous an expedition. Joan used
every argument in favour of setting out forth-
with for Rhelms : she declared that the time
given to her for carrying out her mission was
short, and, according to the Duke of Alengon's
testimony, she said that after the King was
crowned she would deliver the Duke of Orleans
from his captivity in England, but that she had
only one year in which to accomplish this task ;
and therefore she prayed that there might be
no delay in starting for Rheims.

Charles was now staying at the Castle of
Loches, that gloomy prison-fortress whose dun-
geons were to become so terribly notorious in
the succeeding reign. Joan, whose impatience
for action carried her beyond the etiquette of
the Court, entered on one occasion into the
King's private apartment, where the feeble and
irresolute monarch was consulting with his con-
fessor the Bishop of Castres, Christophe d'Har-
court, and Robert de Macon. Kneeling, the
Maid said : —

' Noble Dauphin, hold not such long and
so many councils, but start at once for Rheims,
and there receive your crown.'

' Do your voices inspire this advice ? ' asked
the King's confessor.

'Yes,' was the answer, 'and with vehemence.'

'Then,' said the Bishop, 'will you not tell
us in the King's presence in what way your
voices communicate with you ? '

To this Jesuitical query, Joan, in her simple

72 JOAN OF ARC.

and straightforward manner, answered the priest,
that when she met with people who doubted the
truth of her mission she would retire to her
room and pray, and then voices returned and
spoke to her : — ' Go forward, daughter of God,
and we will assist you,' and how hearing those
voices and those words she would rejoice and
take courage, and only long that her then state
of happiness might last always. While telling
them these things she seemed a being trans-
formed, surrounded by a something Divine and
holy.

It was not unnatural that the King and his
councillors should hesitate before making up
their minds to undertake the journey to Rheims,
for the English were posted in force at Beau-
gency, at Meun, where Talbot was encamped,
and at Jargeau. They also held a strong
position on the Loire ; it would be difficult to
reach Rheims without encountering some of
their forces. Jargeau had been attacked, indeed,
by Dunois and Xaintrailles, but unsuccessfully ;
and there was real danger in going northwards
while the English were still so plentiful and so
strongly entrenched in the towns of the centre
and south of France. Another reason for delay-
ing the journey to Rheims and the ceremony of
the coronation, was that some time must elapse
before the princes and great nobles, who would
have to take part in the coronation, could
assemble at Rheims.

Joan, thus thwarted in her wish of march-
ing directly on to Rheims, suggested driving the

THE CORONA TION A T RHELMS. 73

English from their fortresses and encampments
on the Loire. To this scheme the royal con-
sent was obtained, and the Duke of Alencon
was placed in command of a small force of
soldiers. Joan directed the expedition, and it
was ordered that nothing should be done with-
out the sanction of the Maid.

In a letter, dated the 8th June, 1429, written
by the young Count of Laval, who met Joan of
Arc in Selles in Berri, the place of rendezvous
for the expedition, is a pleasant notice of the
impression the heroine caused him. He describes
her as being completely armed, except that her
head was bare. She entertained the Count and
his brother at Selles. 'She ordered some wine,'
he writes, 'and told me that I should soon drink
wine with her in Paris.' He adds that it was
marvellous to see and hear her. He also
describes her leaving Selles that same evening
for Romorantin, with a portion of her troops.
'We saw her,' he writes, 'clothed all in white
armour excepting her head ; her charger, a great
black one, plunged and reared at the door of
her lodging, so that she could not mount him.
Then she said, " Lead him to the Cross," which
cross stood in front of the church on the high
road. And then he stood quite still before the
cross, and she mounted him ; then as she was
riding away she turned her face to the people
who were standing near the door of the church ;
in her clear woman's voice she said: — "You
priests and clergy, make processions, and pray
to God for our success." Then she gave the

74 JOAN OF ARC.

word to advance, and with her banner borne by
a handsome page, and with her little battle-axe
in her hand, she rode away.'

The church before which this scene took
place at Selles-sur-Cher still exists, a fine mas-
sive building, dating from between the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries ; but the old cross that
stood before it, to which Joan of Arc's black
charger was led, has long ago disappeared.

In my opinion, this graphic description of the
Maid of Orleans, written by Guy de Laval to
his parents, is the best that has come down to
our day of the heroine. There is to us a fresh-
ness about it which proves how deeply the
writer must have been stirred by that wonder-
ful character ; it shows too that, with all her
intensely religious and mystic temperament, Joan
of Arc had a good part of sprightliness and
bonhomie in her character, which endeared her to
those whose good fortune it was to meet her.

The incident of the black charger standing so
still beside the cross, and the figure of the Maid,
mystic, wonderful, in her white panoply, with her
head bare — that head which, in spite of no auth-
entic portrait having come down to us, we can-
not but imagine a grand and noble one — make
up a living picture of historic truth, far above
the fancies evolved out of the brains of any
writer of fiction — for is it not romance realised ?

The eagerness to accompany Joan of Arc in
this expedition of the Loire was great. The Duke
of Alengon wrote to his mother to sell his lands
in order that money might be raised for the army.

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 75

The King was unable or unwilling to pay out of
his coffers the expenses of the campaign. From
all sides came officers and men eager for new
victories under the banner of the Maid.

Joan led the vanguard, followed by Alengon,
de Rais, Dunois, and Gaucourt. At Orleans
they were joined by fresh forces under Vendome
and Boussac. On the nth of June the army
amounted to eight thousand men. Jargeau was
the first place to be attacked. Here Suffolk,
with between six and seven thousand men, all
picked soldiers, had established himself. Inferior
in numbers, the English had the advantage over
the French in their artillery. In the meanwhile,
Bedford, who had news of Suffolk's peril, sent
Fastolfe to Jargeau, with a fresh force of five
thousand men. But for some reason or other
Fastolfe seemed in no hurry to come to Suffolk's
assistance ; he lost four days at Etampes, and four
more at Jauville. Some alarm seems to have
been felt among the French troops at the news
of Fastolfe's approach. Joan mildly rebuked
those who showed anxiety by saying to them :
' Were I not sure of success, I would prefer to
keep sheep than to endure these perils.'

The faubourgs of the town of Jargeau were
attacked and taken, but before storming the
place, Joan, according to her habit, sent a sum-
mons to the army. She bade the enemy sur-
render : doing so, he would be spared, and
allowed to depart with his side-arms ; if he
refused, the assault should be made at once.
The English demanded an armistice of fifteen

'je JOAN OF ARC.

days : hardly a reasonable request when it is
remembered that Fastolfe, with his reinforce-
ments, might any day arrive before Jargeau.
Joan said they might leave, taking their horses
with them, but within the hour. To this the
English would not consent, and it was decided
to attack upon the following morning.

The next day was a Tuesday; the signal was
given at nine in the morning. Joan had the
trumpets sounded, and led on the attacking
column in person. Alen9on appears to have
thought the hour somewhat early ; but Joan
overruled him by telling him that it was the
Divine will that the engagement should then
take place. ' Travaillez,' she repeated, 'Travail-
lez! et Dieu travaillera ! '

These words may well be called Joan of
Arc's life motto, and the secret of her success.
'Had she,' she asked Alencon, 'ever given him
reason to doubt her word?' And she reminded
him how she had promised his wife to bring him,
AlenQon, back safe and sound from this expedi-
tion. Joan seems throughout that day's fighting
to have watched over the Duke's safety with
much anxious care ; at one hour of the day she
bade him leave a position from which he was
watching the attack, as she told him that if he
remained longer in that place he would get slain
from some catapult or engine, to which she
pointed on the walls. Hardly had the Duke
left the spot when a Seigneur de Lude was
struck and killed by a shot from the very
engine about which Joan had warned Alengon.

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 77

Hour after hour raged the attack ; both Joan
and Alen9on directed the storming parties under
a heavy fire. A stone from a catapult struck
Joan on her helmet as she was in the act of
mounting a ladder — she fell back, stunned, into
the ditch, but soon revived, and rising, with her
undaunted courage, she turned to hearten her
followers, declaring that the victory would be
theirs. In a few more moments the place was
in possession of the French. Suffolk fled to the
bridge which spanned the Loire: there he was
captured. A soldier named William Regnault
beat him to the ground, but Suffolk refused to
yield to one so low in rank, and is said to have
dubbed his victor knight before giving him up
his sword. Besides Suffolk, a brother of his was
taken, and four or five hundred men were killed
or captured. The place was pillaged. The
most important of the prisoners were shipped
to Orleans.

The following day Joan returned to Orleans
with Alengon, where they remained two days to
rest their men, after which they proceeded to
Meun. This was a strongly fortified town on
the Loire, about an equal distance from Orleans
on the west and from Jargeau on the east.

The first success of the French was the occu-
pation of a bridge held by the English. They
then descended the river, and attacked the town
of Beaugency. This town had been abandoned
by the English garrison, who had thrown them-
selves into the castle. Here it was that the army
of the Loire was joined by the Constable de

78 JOAN OF ARC.

Richemont, who could be almost considered as a
little monarch in his own territory of Brittany.
This magnate appears to have been a somewhat
unwelcome addition to Joan and Alencon's army.
He was, however, tolerated, if not welcomed.
Alenqon and the Constable, who had till now
been at enmity, were reconciled by Joan's influ-
ence, and she paved the way for a reconciliation
between Richemont and the King.

It was high time that all the French princes
should be reconciled, for the danger from the in-
vaders was still great even in the immediate
circle of the Court and army. A strong body of
men was known to be on the way from Paris,
under the command of Fastolfe, and Talbot was
marching to meet him with a force from the
Loire district ; they soon met, and together pro-
ceeded directly upon Orleans. Fastolfe appears to
have been disinclined to attack, his force being
smaller than that of the French ; but Talbot was
beside himself with rage at having to retreat from
Orleans, and swore by God and St. George that,
even had he to fight the enemy alone, fight he
would. Fastolfe had to give way to the fiery
lord, although he told his commander that they
had but a handful of men compared to the
French ; and that if they were beaten, all that
King Henry V. had won in France with so much
loss of life would be again lost to the English.

Leaving some troops to watch the English
garrisons in the castle of Beaugency, Joan
marched against the English. The hostile armies
met some two miles between Beaugency and

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 79

Meun. The English had taken up a place of
vantage on the brow of a hill ; their archers as
usual were placed in the front line, and before
them bristled a stockade. The French force
numbered about six thousand, led by Joan of
Arc, the Duke of Alengon, Dunois, Lafayette,
La Hire, Xaintrailles, and other officers.

It was late in the day when heralds from the
English lines arrived with a defiant message
for the French. Joan's answer was firm and
dignified. 'Go,' she said to the heralds, 'and
tell your chiefs that it is too late for us to
meet to-night, but to-morrow, please God and
our Lady, we shall come to close quarters.'

The English were still strongly fortified in
the little town of Meun. A portion of their army
left Beaugency in order to effect a junction
with their other comrades, and in perfect order
Talbot commenced his retreat on Paris, taking
the northern road through the wooded land of
La Beauce. They were closely followed by the
French, but neither army had any idea how near
they were to one another till a stag, startled by
the approach of the French, crossed the English
advanced guard. The shouts of the English
soldiers on seeing the stag gallop by was the
first sign the French had of the propinquity of
their foes. A hasty council of war was held by
the French commanders. Some were for delay
and postponing the attack until all their forces
should be united ; and these, the more prudent,
pointed out the inferiority of their force to that
of the enemy, arguing that a battle under the

8o JOAN OF ARC.

circumstances, in the open country, would be
hazardous. Joan of Arc, however, would not
listen to these monitions. 'Even,' she cried, 'if
they reach up to the clouds we must fight them ! '
And she prophesied a complete victory.

Although, as ever, anxious to command the
attack, she allowed La Hire to lead the van. His
orders were to prevent the enemy advancing,
and to keep him on the defensive till the entire
French force could reach the ground. La Hire's
attack proved so impetuous that the English
rearguard broke and fled back in confusion.
Talbot, who had not -had time, so sudden and un-
expected had been the French attack, to place
his archers and defend the ground, as was his
wont, with palisades and stockades, turned on the
enemy like a lion at bay. Fastolfe now came up
to Talbot's succour ; but his men were met by
the rout of the rearguard of the broken battle,
and the fugitives caused a panic among the new-
comers. In vain did Sir John attempt to rally
his men and face the enemy. After a hopeless
struggle, he too was borne off by the tide of
fugitives. One of these, an officer named
Waverin, states the English loss that day to
have amounted to two thousand slain and two
hundred taken, but Dunois gives a higher
figure, and places the English killed at four
thousand.

This battle of Patay was the most com-
plete defeat that the English had met with
during the whole length of that war of a
hundred years between France and England ;

WEST PORTAL-RHEIMS.

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 8i

and, to add to its completeness, the hitherto
■ undefeated Talbot was himself among-st the
taken.

'You litde thought,' said Alencon to him,
when brought before him, ' that this would
have happened to you ! '

' ' Tis the fortune of war,' was the old hero's
laconic answer.

The effects of this victory of Patay on
the fortunes of the English in France were
greater than the deliverance of Orleans, and far
more disastrous, for the French had now for
the first time beaten in the open field their
former victors. The once invincible were now
the vanquished, and the great names of Crecy,
Poitiers, and Agincourt had lost their glamour.
When the news was known that the English
under Talbot and Fastolfe had been beaten,
and that the great commander for so many
years the terror of France had been made a
prisoner, and that these mighty deeds had been
accomplished by the advanced guard of the
French army under the inspiration of the Maid
of Orleans, the whole country felt that the
knell of doom of the English occupation in
France had rung.

There is an anecdote relating to Joan of
Arc at Patay that should find a place here.
After the battle, and while the prisoners were
being marched off by the French, Joan was
distressed to see the brutality with which those
captives unable to pay a ransom were treated.
One poor fellow she saw mortally wounded by

82 JOAN OF ARC.

his captors. Flinging herself from her saddle,
she knelt by the side of the dying man, and,
having sent for a priest to shrive him, she
remained by the poor fellow's side and attended
to him to the end, and by her tender ministra-
tions helped him to pass more gently over the
dark valley of death.

Michelet discovered this story in the deposi-
tion of Joan of Arc's page, Louis de Contes,
who was probably an eye-witness of the scene.

With this brilliant victory at Patay closed
Joan of Arc's short but glorious campaign on
the Loire. Briefly, this was the career of her
victories: — On the nth of June the Maid at-
tacked Jargeau, which surrendered the next day.
On the 13th she re-entered Orleans, where she
rallied her troops. On the 15th she occupied
the bridge at Meun, and the following day she
attacked Beaugency, which yielded on the day
after. The English had in vain hoped to relieve
Jargeau : they arrived too late. After the fall of
Beaugency they fell back, and were defeated at
Patay on the i8th.

A wonderful week's work was this campaign,
ordered and led by a maiden of eighteen. What
made Joan of Arc's success more remarkable
is the fact that among the officers who served
under her many were lukewarm and repeatedly
foiled her wishes. And it is not difficult to trace
the feeling of jealousy that existed among her
officers; for here was one not knight or noble,
not prince, or even soldier, but a village maiden,
who had succeeded in a few days in turning the

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 83

whole tide of a war, which had lasted with disas-
trous effects for several generations, into a suc-
cession of national victories. This professional
jealousy, as one may call it, among the French
military leaders was fomented and aggravated by
the perfidious counsellors about the King. The
only class who thoroughly appreciated and were
really worthy of the Maid and her mission,
were the people. And it is still by the people
that everlasting gratitude and love of the heroic
Maid are most deeply felt.

While Joan was gaining a succession of
victories on the Loire, the indolent King was on
a visit to La Tremoille at his castle of Sully-
sur- Loire. Accompanied by Alengon and the
Constable Richemont, Joan repaired to Sully.
She had promised to make the peace between
Charles and Richemont, and as the Constable had
brought with him from his lands in Brittany
fifteen hundred men as a peace-offering, the re-
conciliation was not a matter of much difficulty.
La Tremoille saw with an evil feeling the ever-
growing popularity of Joan, and feared her daily
increasing influence with the King ; but he could
not prevent the march on Rheims, much as he
probably wished to do so. It was arranged that
the army should be concentrated at Gien. From
Gien, Joan addressed a letter to the citizens of
Tournay, a town of doubtful loyalty to Charles,
and much under the influence of the Burgundian
party. She summoned in this letter those who
were loyal to Charles to attend the King's forth-
coming coronation.

84 JOAN OF ARC.

On the 28th of June the King and Court
left Gien, on their northern march. That march
was not a simple matter, for a country had to be
traversed in which the towns and castles still
bristled with English garrisons, or with doubtful
allies. Auxerre belonged to the Burgundian
party, always in alliance with the English ;
Troyes was garrisoned with a mixed force of
English and Burgundians ; and the strongly for-
tified places on the Loire, such as Marchenois,
Cosne, and La Charite, were still held by the
English troops. Charles' army had no artillery ;
it was therefore out of the question to storm or
besiege towns however hostile, and the counsel-
lors and creatures of the King urged him not to
risk the dangers of a journey to Rheims under
such disadvantageous circumstances.

Joan, wearied out by the endless procrastina-
tion and hesitation of the King, left him, and
preferred a free camp in the open fields to the
purlieus of the Court, with its feeble sovereign
and plotting courtiers. Joan of Arc on this
occasion may be said to have 'sulked,' but she
showed her usual common sense in what she did,
and her leaving the Court seems to have given
the vacillating King a momentary feeling of
shame and remorse. Orders were issued that
the Court should be moved on the 29th of
June.

The royal army which started on that day
for Rheims numbered twelve thousand men ; but
this force was greatly increased on its march.
By the side of the King rode the Maid of Orleans ;

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 85

on the other side of the King, Alenqon. The
Counts of Clermont, of Vendome, and of Bou-
logne — all princes of the blood — came next.
Dunois, the Marechal de Boussac (Saint-Severe),
and Louis Admiral de Culan followed. And
then, in a crowd of knights and captains, rode
the Seigneurs de Rais, de Laval, de Loheac, de
Chauvigny, La Hire, Xaintrailles, La Tremoille,
and many others.

Before the town of Auxerre a halt was called :
it was still under the influence of the English
and Burgundians. A deputation waited upon
Charles, provisions were sent to the army, but
the town was not entered. Outside its fortifi-
cations the army rested three days, after which
it continued its march to Saint-Florentin, whose
gates swung open to the King ; thence on to
Brinon I'Archeveque, whence Charles forwarded
a messenger with a letter to his lieges at Rheims,
announcing his approach.

On the 4th of July the royal force had
reached Saint-Fal, near Troyes. Joan of Arc
despatched a messenger summoning that place
to open its gates to the King ; but Troyes was
strongly garrisoned by a force of half English
half Burgundian soldiers, and these had sent for
succour to the English Regent, the Duke of Bed-
ford. The army of the King arrived before the
gates of the town on the 4th of July ; a sally
was made by the hostile garrison, but this was
driven back. Pour-parlers ensued. The Kings
heralds were informed by the garrison officers
that they had sworn to the Duke of Burgundy

86 JOAN OF ARC.

not to allow, without his leave, any other troops
to enter their gates. They went further, and in-
sulted the Maid of Orleans in gross terms, calling
her a ' cocquarde ' — whatever that ugly term may
mean.

The situation was embarrassing. How could
the town be taken without a siege train and
artillery ? But to leave it in the rear, with its
strong garrison, would be madness. The King's
men were in favour of retiring and abandoning
the expedition to Rheims. There happened to
be within the town of Troyes at this time a
famous monk of the preaching kind, named
Father Richard. Father Richard had been a
pilgrim, and had visited the Holy Land, and had
made himself notorious by interminable sermons,
for he was wont to preach half-a-dozen hours
at a time. Crowds had listened to him in Paris
and other places. The English, who probably
thought his sermons insufferably long, or too
much leavened with French sympathies, drove
him out of Paris, and he had taken refuge
at Troyes. The monk had heard much of Joan
of Arc, and was eager to see and speak with her,
but his enthusiasm was mixed with a religious
and even superstitious fear in regard to the
heroine. He was allowed to enter the royal
precincts, and approached the Maid of Orleans
with many a sign of the cross, and with sprinkling
of holy water. Seeing the good man's terror,
Joan told him to approach her without fear.

' Come forward boldly ! ' she said to the monk.
' I shall not fly away ! '

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 87

And after convincing him that she was not
a demon in any way, she made him the bearer of
a letter from her to the people in the town. The
negotiations between the army and the burghers
lasted five days ; the town refusing to admit the
King, and the King unwilling to pass the town,
but unable to take it by force. Charles was on
the point of giving up the attempt to reach
Rheims when one of his Council pointed out
that as the expedition had been undertaken at
the instigation of Joan of Arc, it was only fair
her judgment should now be followed, and not
that of any one else. Joan was summoned before
the Council, when she solemnly assured the King
that in three days' time the place would be taken.
' If we were sure of it,' said the Chancellor,
'we would wait here six days.'

' Six days ! ' said the Maid. ' You will enter
Troyes to-morrow.'

Mounting her horse, the Maid rode into the
camp, and ordered all to prepare to carry out a
general assault on the next morning. Anything
that could be used in the shape of furniture and
fagots, to make a bridge across the town ditches,
was collected. Joan, who had now her tent
moved up close to the moat, worked harder,
says an eye-witness, than any two of the most
skilful captains in preparing the attack. She
directed that fascines should be thrown into
the moat, across which the troops were to pass
to the town.

Early next day everything was in readiness
for the attack, but at this juncture, just as she

88 JOAN OF ARC.

was preparing to lead ' the storming party, the
Bishop of Troyes, John Laiguise, attended by
a deputation of the principal citizens, came
from the town with offers of capitulation. The
people were ready to place themselves at the
King's mercy, owing probably to the terror the
preparations made by Joan of Arc on the pre-
vious evening had inspired them with, mixed,
too, with the superstitious dread they felt for
her presence. Had not even the English
soldiers declared that, when attacked by the
terrible Maiden, they had seen what appeared
to be flights of white butterflies sparkling all
around her form ! How could these good
people of Troyes hope to withstand such a
power ? To add to this fear, it was remem-
bered by the citizens of Troyes that in it had
been signed and concluded the shameful treaty
by which Charles VH. had been disinherited
from his crown and possessions. The people
therefore gave in without further struggle. The
conditions of capitulation were soon arranged.
The burghers were granted the immunity of
their persons and their goods, and certain liber-
ties for their commerce. All those traders who
held any office at the hands of the English
government were to continue the enjoyment of
these offices or benefices, with the condition of
taking them up again at the hands of the King
of France. No garrison would be quartered
upon the town, and the English and Burgun-
dian soldiers were to be allowed to depart
with their goods.

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 89

The next day — the loth of July — Charles
and his host entered Troyes in state, the Maid
of Orleans riding by the side of the King, her
banner displayed as was her custom.

When, as had been arranged in the treaty
of capitulation, the foreign soldiers began to
leave the place with bag and baggage (goods),
Joan was indignant at finding that some of
these so-called goods were nothing less than
French prisoners. This was a thing that she
could not tolerate, treaty or no treaty; and,
placing herself at the gate of the town, she in-
sisted that her imprisoned countrymen should be
left in her charge. The King naturally felt
obliged to gratify her ; so he released the cap-
tives, and paid their ransom down. Before leav-
ing Troyes the next day, William Bellier, who had
been Joan's host at Chinon, was left as bailiff of
the place, along with other officers.

Thence the army moved on by way of
Chalons. Though still in the hands of the Eng-
lish, a deputation of clergy and citizens met the
King, and placed themselves at his orders.

While in the neighbourhood of Chalons, Joan
of Arc met some friends who had arrived from
Domremy ; among them were two old village
companions, Gerardin d'Epinal and John Morel,
to whom she gave her red dress. In conver-
sation with these she said that the only dread
she had in the future was treachery : a dread
which seems to point in some strange pro-
phetic manner to the fate which was so soon to
meet her at Compiegne.

90 JOAN OF ARC.

It was on the evening of the i6th of July
that the royal host at length came in sight of
the massive towers of the great cathedral church
of Rheims. It was at Sept Saulx, about eight
miles' distance from Rheims, that the King waited
for a deputation to reach him from the town.
Rheims was still filled with the English and
Burgundian adherents, and had Bedford chosen
to throw, as he could well have done, a force
into that place, Charles might yet have been
prevented from entering its gates. Perhaps Bed-
ford did not believe in the possibility of Charles
arriving at his goal, and had counted on the
King's well-known weakness and indecision, and
on the hesitation of such men as La Tremoille
and others of his Council. The Regent had
received assurances from the officials in Rheims
that they would not admit Charles. But after
what passed at Troyes and at Chilons, Charles
had not long to wait for a favourable answer
from his lieges at Rheims. Indeed, the depu-
tation which met him at Sept Saulx were effu-
sive in their good offices and entreaties that
the King should forthwith enter his good city
of Rheims.

The Archbishop (Regnault de Chartres), who
had preceded the King by a few hours to his
town, came out to meet the King at the head of
the corporation and civic companies. From all
sides flocked crowds eager to welcome the King,
and even more the Maid of Orleans. In those
days the people's cry of joy and triumph was
' Noel! ' — but why that cry of Christmas joy had

THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS. 91

become the popular hosanna, it is not easy to
conjecture.

Throughout that night the preparations for
the coronation were feverishly made both within
and without the cathedral. On the 17th of
July, with all the pomp and ceremony that the
church and army could bestow, the King was
crowned and anointed with the holy oil which
four of his principal officers had brought to the
cathedral from the ancient abbey church of
Saint-Remy.

There exist few grander fanes in Christen-
dom than the great cathedral of Rheims. The
thirteenth century, so prolific of splendid churches,
had expended all its wealth of lavish decoration
on the gorgeous portal, with its array of saints and
sovereigns, under which passed Charles VII. of
France, with the Maid of Orleans on his right
hand. Hurried as had been the preparations for
the ceremonial, the even then ancient and vener-
able rites must have deeply impressed the specta-
tors, and the semi-sacred act was carried out with
scrupulous care — the King crowned and anointed
with the holy oil, surrounded on his throne by
the ecclesiastical peers and high dignitaries of
the Church, and waited on by the secular peers
during the crowning and after at the coronation
banquet.

At length was accomplished the darling wish
of Joan of Arc's heart, for now her King was
regarded and sanctioned by all true French
persons as King of France, by the grace of God
and Holy Church.

92 JOAN OF ARC.

When the King received the crown from the
hands of the Archbishop, a peal of trumpets rang
out, with such a mighty volume of sound that the
very roof of the cathedral seemed to shake again.
Ingres, in his striking picture of Joan of Arc,
now in the gallery of the Louvre, represents her
standing by the high altar, clad in her white
panoply of shining steel, her banner held on high ;
below bows in prayer her confessor, the priest
Pasquerel, in his brown robes of the Order of
Augustin ; and beyond stand her faithful squire
and pages. The heroine's face is raised, and on
it sits a radiant look of mingled gratitude and
triumph. It is a noble idea of a sublime figure.

When the long-drawn-out ceremony came to
an end, and after the people had shouted them-
selves hoarse in crying ' Noel ! ' and ' Long live
King Charles!' — Joan, who had remained by the
King throughout the day, knelt at his feet and,
according to one chronicle, said these words :

' Now is finished the pleasure of God, who
willed that you should come to Rheims and re-
ceive your crown, proving that you are truly
the King, and no other, to whom belongs this
land of France.'

Many besides the King are said to have
shed tears at that moment.

That seemed indeed the moment of Joan
of Arc's triumph. The Nunc Dimittis might
well have then echoed from her lips ; but in
the midst of all the rejoicing and festivity at
this time Joan had saddened thoughts and
melancholy forebodings as to the future. While

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 93

the people shouted 'Noel!' as she rode through
the jubilant streets by the side of the King,
she turned to the Archbishop, and said : ' When
I die I should wish to be buried here among
these good and devout people.'

And on the prelate asking her how it was
that at such a moment her mind should set
itself on the thought of death, and when she
expected her death to happen, she answered :
' I know not — it will come when God pleases ;
but how I would that God would allow me
to return to my home, to my sister and my
brothers ! For how glad would they be to see
me back again. At any rate,' she added, ' I
have done what my Saviour commanded me to
do.'

Her mission was indeed accomplished : that
is to say, if her mission consisted of the two
great deeds which while at Chinon she had
repeatedly assured her listeners she was born
to accomplish. These were, first, to drive the
English out of Orleans, and thereby deliver
that town ; the second, to take the King to
Rheims, where he would receive his crown.
The other enterprises, such as the wish to
deliver the Duke of Orleans from his captivity
in England, and then to wage a holy war
against the Moslems, may be left out of the
actual task which, encouraged by her voices,
Joan had set herself to accomplish. But the
two great deeds had now been carried out — and
with what marvellous rapidity ! In spite of all
the obstacles placed in her path, not only by

94 JOAN OF ARC.

the enemies of her country, but by those
nearest to the ear of the King, Orleans had
been delivered in four days' time, the English
host had been in a week driven out of their
strongholds on the Loire, and defeated in a
pitched battle ! The King unwillingly, and with
many of his Court opposed to the enterprise,
after passing through a country strongly oc-
cupied by the enemy without having lost a
man, had by the tact and courage of Joan of
Arc been enabled to reach Rheims ; and after
this successful march he had received his
crown among his peers and lieges, as though
the country were again at peace, and no
Eng-lish left on the soil of France. What was
still more surprising was, that all these things
should have been accomplished at the instigation
and by the direction of a Maid who only a few
months before had been an unknown peasant
in a small village of Lorraine. How had she
been able not only to learn the tactics of a
campaign, the rudiments of the art of war,
but even the art itself? No one had shown
in these wars a keener eye for selecting the
weakest place to attack, or where artillery and
culverin fire could be used with most effect,
or had been quicker to avail himself of these
weapons. No one saw with greater rapidity —
(that rarest of military gifts) — when the decisive
moment had arrived for a sudden attack, or had
a better judgment for the right moment to
head a charge and assault. How indeed must
the knights and commanders, bred to the use

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 95

of arms since their boyhood, have wondered
how this daughter of the peasants had obtained
the knowledge which had placed her at their
head, and enabled her to gain successes and
reap victories against the enemy, which until
she came none of them had any hope of
obtaining. They indeed could not account for
it, except that in Joan of Arc was united not
only the soul of patriotism and a faith to
move mountains, but the qualities of a great
captain as well. That, it seems to us, must
have been the conclusion that her comrades
in arms arrived at regarding the Maid of
Orleans.

Dunois stated that until the advent of the
Maid the French had no longer the courage
to attack the English in the open field, but
that since she had inspired them with her
courage they were ready to attack any force
of the army, however superior it might be.
This testimony was confirmed by Alengon also :
he declared that in things outside the province
of warfare she was in every respect as simple
as a young girl ; but in all that concerned
the science of war she was thoroughly skilled,
from the management of a lance in rest to that
of marshalling an army ; and that as regarded
the use of artillery she was eminently qualified.
All the military commanders, he said, were
amazed to see in her as much skill as could
be expected in a seasoned captain who had
profited by a training of from twenty to thirty
years. 'But,' added the Duke, 'it is principally

96 JOAN OF ARC.

in her use of artillery that she displays her most
complete talent.' And he proceeds to bear his
high tribute to her goodness of heart, which she
displayed on every possible occasion.

Although her physical courage enabled her to
face the greatest perils and personal risks, she
had a horror of bloodshed, and though her spirit
was 'full of haughty courage, not fearing death
nor shrinking distress, but resolute in most ex-
tremes,' she never entered battle but bearing her
banner in her hand ; and to the last day of her
appearance on the field she strove with all her
great moral force to induce the rude and brutal
men around her to become more humane even
in the hurly-burly of the din of battle. All un-
necessary cruelty and bloodshed made her suffer
intensely, and we have seen how she ministered
to the English wounded who had fallen in fight.
As far as she could she prevented pillage, and
she would only promise her countrymen success
on the condition that they should not prey upon
the citizens of the places they conquered. Even
when she had passed the day fasting on horse- .
back, Joan would refuse any food unless it had
been honourably obtained. As a child she had
been taught to be charitable and to give to the
needy, and she carried out these Christian prin-
ciples when at the head of armies ; the ' quality
of mercy ' with her was ever present. She dis-
tributed to the poor all she had with her, and
would say, with what truth God knows, ' I have
been sent for the consolation of the poor and
the relief of the needy.' She would take upon

INTERIOR— RHEIMS.

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 97

herself the charge of the wounded ; indeed, she
may be considered as the precursor of all the
noble hearts who in modern warfare follow
armies in order to alleviate and help the sick
and wounded. And she tended with equal care
and sympathy the wounded among the enemy, as
well as those of her own side.

This is no invention, no fancy of romance,
but the plain truth ; for there can be no disput-
ing the testimony of those who followed Joan of
Arc and saw her acts.

Regarding herself, Joan of Arc said she was
but a servant and an instrument under Divine
command. When people would avow that such
works as she had carried out had never been
done in former times, she would simply say : ' My
Saviour has a book in which no one has ever
read, however learned a scholar he may be.'

In all things she was pure and saint-like,
and her wonderful life, as Michelet has truly
said of it, was a living legend. Had she not
been inspired by her voices and her visions to
take up arms for the salvation of her country,
Joan of Arc would probably have lived and
ended her obscure life in some place of holy
retreat. An all-absorbing love for all things
sacred was her ruling idiosyncrasy. From her
childhood her delight was to hear the church
bells, the music of anthems, the sacred notes
of the organ. Never did she miss attending
the Church festivals. When within hail of a
church it was her wont, however hurried the
march, to enter, attended by any of the soldiers

G

98 JOAN OF ARC.

whom she could induce to follow her, and kneel
with them before the altar. At the close of some
stirring day passed in the midst of the din of
battle, and after being for hours in the saddle, she
would, ere she sought rest, always return thanks
to her God and His saints for their succour.

Joan also loved to mix in the crowd of poor
citizens, and begged that the little children should
be brought to her. Pasquerel, her confessor, was
always told to remind Joan of Arc of the feast
days on which children were allowed to receive
the Communion, in order that she too might
receive it with these innocents.

The army has probably ever been the home
of high swearing : the expression in French of
' ton de garnison ' is an amiable way of referring
to that habit of speech ; and we all know ancient
warriors whose conversation is thickly larded
with oaths and profanity. This habit Joan of
Arc seems to have held in great abhorrence.
We have seen how she got La Hire to swear
only by his stick ; to another officer of high
rank, who had been making use of some strong
oaths, she said : 'How can you thus blaspheme
your Saviour and your God by so using His
name ? ' Let us hope her lesson bore fruit.

Throughout the land Joan of Arc was now
regarded as the Saviour of France. Nor at
this time did the King prove ungrateful. In
those days nobility was highly regarded. It
brought with it great prestige, and much benefit
accrued to the holders of titles. Charles now
raised the Maid of Orleans to the equal in rank

THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 99

of a Count, and bestowed upon her an estab-
lishment and household. The grateful burghers
of Orleans, too, loaded her with gifts, all which
honours Joan received with quiet modesty. For
herself she never asked anything. After the
coronation at Rheims, when the King begged
her to make him a request, the only thing she
asked was, that the taxes might be taken off
her native village.

Her father, who came to see her at Rheims,
had the satisfaction of carrying back this news
to Domremy.

Although both King and nobles vied in paying
honours to Joan of Arc, it was from the common
people, from the heart of the nation, that she re-
ceived what seems to have amounted to a feeling
approaching adoration. Wherever she passed she
was followed by crowds eager to kiss her feet and
her hands, and who even threw themselves before
her horse's feet. Medals were struck and worn
as charms, with her effigy or coat-of-arms struck
on them. Her name was introduced into the
prayers of the Church.

Joan, although touched by these marks of
affection, never allowed the people, as far as in
her power lay, to ascribe unearthly influence to
her person. When in the course of her trial
the accusation that the people had made her
an object of adoration was brought as a proof
of her heresy, she said : 'In truth I should not
have been able to have prevented that from
being so, had God not protected me Himself
from such a danger.'

CHAPTER IV.
THE CAPTURE.

WE must now glance at the movements of
the Enghsh since the deliverance of Or-
leans and their defeat at Patay, and the French
King's coronation.

What proves the utter demoralisation of the
English at this time is that the Regent Bedford
was not only afraid of remaining in Paris, but had
also taken refuge in the fortress of Vincennes.
He was so poor that he could not pay the
members of Parliament sitting in Paris. Like
other bodies receiving no pay, the Parliament
declined to work. So restricted were all things
then in Paris that when the child-king (Henry
VI.) was brought from London to be crowned
there, not enough parchment could be found on
which to register the details of his arrival.

For want of a victim to assuage his ire, the
Regent disgraced Sir John Fastolfe, whom he
unknighted and ungartered, in order to punish
him for the defeat at Patay ; and he wrote that
the English reverses had been caused by 'a dis-
ciple and lyme of the Feende, called the Pucelle,
that used fals enchantements and sorcerie.'

THE CAPTURE. loi

The Regent, whose degrading of Fastolfe
and vituperation of Joan of Arc did not serve
to help, applied to his powerful brother-in-law,
the Duke of Burgundy, for aid. Burgundy
came to the Regent's assistance, bringing a
small force with him from Picardy. Then Bed-
ford bethought him of his powerful relation in
England, Henry Beaufort, the Bishop of Win-
chester. Most opportunely for the Regent, the
Bishop had collected an army for the suppres-
sion of the Bohemian Hussites. The Regent
implored his uncle, the Bishop, to send this
army for the defence of the English and their
interests, now in such dire jeopardy. Winchester
was a mean, avaricious prince, and his aid had
to be bought. A treaty was signed on the ist
of July, in which Winchester promised to bring
his troops to his nephew's assistance ; but he
delayed stirring till the middle of that month.
It pleased the crafty Bishop to know that his
great wealth made him all-powerful in Eng-
land ; for the English Protector, the Duke of
Gloucester, was a mere cipher compared to
Winchester ; and now that his other nephew,
the Protector of France, was in distress, he
could dictate his own terms to both. It was
not until the 25th of July that Winchester at
length arrived with his army in Paris. Then
Bedford breathed more freely, and left the capi-
tal with an army of observation to watch the
movements of the French King.

It was now the earnest wish of Joan of Arc
that Charles should march direct on Paris, and

102 JOAN OF ARC.

perhaps had he done so he might have entered
that city with as Httle difficulty as he had entered
Rheims ; for if once the King of France had ap-
peared in person, many of the wealthy citizens, as
well as the majority of the common people, would
have welcomed him. Charles, however, as usual
vacillated, and the precious moment slipped by.

Philip (called 'the Good'), Duke of Bur-
gundy, was at this time one of the most power-
ful princes of Christendom. In addition to his
titular domain, he held the wealthy provinces of
Burgundy, including Brabant, Flanders, Franche-
Comte, Holland, Namur, Lower Lorraine, Lux-
embourg, Artois, Hainault, Zealand, Friesland,
Malines, and Salines. This much-territoried
potentate was at the present juncture coquetting
both with Bedford and with Charles, playing one
against the other. To the former he promised
an army, but only contributed a handful of men ;
to the latter he made advances of friendship, as
false as the man who made them.

Joan had despatched two letters of a con-
ciliatory tone to the Duke of Burgundy from
Rheims. The original of one of these is to be
seen in the archives at Lille. Like most of Joan
of Arc's letters, it commences with the name of
Jesus and Mary. As Joan could not write, the
only portion of this letter which bears the mark of
her hand is the sign of the Cross placed at the left
of those names at the top of the document. She
strongly urged the Duke in these letters to make
peace with the King ; she appeals on the score of
his relationship with Charles, to his French blood.

THE CAPTURE. 103

in order to prevent further bloodshed, and to aid
the rightful King. While waiting some definite
answer from the Duke, the King went to Vailly-
sur-Aisne from Rheims. He arrived at Soissons
on the 28th of July, and Chateau Thierry on the
next day. Montmirail was reached on the ist
of August, Provins on the 2nd. It will be seen
that, instead of marching straight upon Paris, the
King was making a mere detour from Rheims
towards the Loire.

It was soon evident that Charles and his civil
councillors had no intention of advancing direct
upon Paris, and were merely marching and counter-
marching until they could, as they trusted, get the
Duke of Burgundy to join them.

In the meanwhile, Bedford saw his oppor-
tunity, and made prompt use of it. Early in the
month of August he issued a proclamation call-
ing on all the subjects of Henry of England in
France and Normandy to rally round their liege
lord. Leaving Paris on the 25th of July, Bedford
marched to Melun with a force of ten thousand
men. Melun was reached on the 4th of August.
On the day after Bedford's arrival at Melun a
letter was sent by Joan of Arc to her friends at
Rheims, announcing that the King's retreat on the
Loire would not be continued by his Majesty.
The King had, in fact, met with a check to his ad-
vanced guard at Bray-sur-Seine. Charles had, she
informed her correspondents, concluded a truce of
fifteen days with the Duke of Burgundy, at the
expiration of which the Duke had promised to
surrender Paris to the King. But, she adds, it

I04 JOAN OF ARC.

could not be certain whether the Duke would
keep to his promise. She concludes her letter by
saying that should the treaty not hold good, then
the army of the King would be able to take active
measures.

This letter is vaguely dated from a lodging on
the road to Paris. It was, she knew, necessary
to be near the capital at the close of the period
stipulated by Burgundy, and the royal army ac-
cordingly took the northern road, leading to Paris.

On the 7th of August the royal force reached
Coulommiers ; on the loth La Ferte Milon, and
on the nth Crespy-en-Valois. Bedford, apprised
of this change in the movements of his foe, sent
off an insulting letter to Charles, whom he ad-
dressed as ' Charles who called himself Dauphin,
and now calls himself King ! ' The Regent re-
proaches the King for having taken the crown of
France, which he said belonged to the rightful
King of France and of England, King Henry ;
and he then styles the Maid of Orleans 'an
abandoned and ill-famed woman, draped in men's
clothes and leading a corrupt life.' He bids
Charles to make either his peace with him or to
meet him face to face. Altogether a most rude,
abusive, and ungallant letter for one prince to
send to another. This letter reached Charles at
Crespy-en-Valois on the nth of August. Bed-
ford was then close at hand, and eager to provoke
the King into attacking him.

Charles contented himself with pushing on his
advanced guard as far as Dammartin, remaining
himself at Lagny-le-Sec.

THE CAPTURE. 105

During the 13th of August skirmishes took
place between the advanced guards of the armies,
but without any resuh.

Bedford now returned to Paris — in order to
collect more troops, some said, others that he
had found the French too strong to attack. The
towns and villages around Paris, hearing of these
events, and that the English had returned to the
capital, showed now their readiness to join the
French cause.

On his way to Compiegne news reached the
French King that Bedford had left Paris and
marched on Senlis. On the 15th of August the
French attacked the English at dawn. Their
army, formed into companies, was commanded by
AlenQon, Rene d'Anjou, the King, who had with
him La Tremoille, and Clermont. Joan of Arc
was at the head of a detachment with Dunois and
La Hire. The English held a strong position,
which they had made still more so by throwing
up palisades and digging ditches.

What appeared destined to be a great engage-
ment ended in a mere skirmish. Neither Charles
nor Bedford were eager to pit all on a stake,
and both preferred to play a waiting game.
Charles retired on Crecy, while Joan of Arc
remained in the field. She had done all that
courage and audacity could to induce the English
to attack. She had ridden up to their palisades
and struck them with the staff of her banner.
But nothing would make the English fight that
day ; and the next, Joan had the mortification of
watching the retreat of the English upon Paris.

io6 JOAN OF ARC.

Joan had nothing now left her to do but to rejoin
the King at Crecy.

On the 17th the King received the keys of
the town of Compiegne, and there he was wel-
comed on the next day with much loyalty. It
was during his stay at Compiegne that Charles
heard the welcome news that the people of Senlis
had admitted the Count of Vendome within their
walls, and had bestowed on him the governor-
ship of their town. Beauvais had also shown its
loyalty, had made an ovation in honour of the
King, and had ordered the Te Deum to be sung,
greatly to the annoyance of the Bishop of that
place — Peter Cauchon — a creature of the Anglo-
Burgundian faction, of whom we shall hear a
good deal later on.

Charles remained at Compiegne until the ex-
piration of the term during which the treaty with
the Duke of Burgundy relating to the disposal of
Paris remained open ; but the negotiations ended
in Burgundy contenting himself with sending to
Charles, John of Luxembourg and the Bishop of
Arras with words of peace. Arrangements were
projected that in order to come to a general
peace the Duke of Savoy was to be called in as
mediator. In the meanwhile a truce was pro-
posed, which was to last until Christmas, with
the proviso that the town of Compiegne should
be ceded to Burgundy during the continuance
of the armistice. No allusion appears to have
been made regarding the fate of Paris.

Joan of Arc, knowing that without Paris all
that she had fought for and obtained would soon

THE CAPTURE. 107

again be lost, resolved to see what she could do
without coming to the King for assistance. She
bade Alengon be ready to accompany her, as she
wished, so she expressed it, to see Paris at closer
quarters than she had yet been able to do.

Joan of Arc left Compiegne accompanied by
the Duke of Alen9on on the 23rd of August,
taking a strong force with them. At Senlis they
collected more troops ; on the 26th they arrived
at Saint Denis. Here they were joined by the
King, who may be supposed to have felt some
shame at not having started with them from
Compiegne ; he came very unwillingly, it is said,
for all that.

Bedford left Paris precipitately for Normandy,
owing to the discovery of a plot having been
started to make over Rouen to the French. This
event must have opened the Regent's eyes to
the uncertain tenure the English held even in
the old duchy of their kings. Bedford had left
Louis of Luxembourg in Paris to command its
garrison of two thousand English soldiers. De
L'Isle Adam was in command of the Burgundian
soldiers. In addition to Luxembourg, who was
a bishop (of Therouanne) as well as a soldier,
Bedford had given charge of the joint com-
mand to an English officer named Radley. The
Bishop summoned the Parliament in order that
it should swear fealty to King Henry VI.
The town walls and ditches were carefully re-
paired and renewed. Guns were placed on the
towers, walls, and batteries ; immense quantities
of ammunition of iron and stone were piled

io8 JOAN OF ARC.

ready at hand, to be used for the defence of all
the gates and approaches of the city. The
moats were deepened, and by dint of threats
and menace, and by frightening the people as
to the terrible revenge the French King would
take on the town and its people when it fell
into his power, the citizens were cajoled into
being made the agents of their natural enemies,
and in sheer terror helped to strengthen the
defences of their town.

During the first days of the siege only a
few unimportant skirmishes took place between
besieged and besiegers. Joan of Arc was
indefatigable, and with her keen eye sought
out the likeliest place where an assault might
be successfully carried ; but she lacked troops
for storming such strong outworks as Paris
then had. The capital was not only defended
by walls and towers, but the English held both
the upper and lower banks of the Seine.

From Saint Denis no assistance came from
the King, and it was only on the 8th of Sep-
tember that, having received reinforcements,
Joan of Arc was at length enabled to make a
determined attack. It was a very high and
holy day in the Church Calendar — the Feast
of the Virgin's Nativity — and, not unmindful of
the sacredness of that feast-day, Joan of Arc
had determined to make a general attack ; for
' the better the day the better the deed ! '
was her feeling on that anniversary. In those
times the western limit of Paris was where
now the wide thoroughfare of the Avenue de

THE CAPTURE. 109

rOpera runs from north to south. The walls
of the city erected under Charles V., flanked
by huge moats and protected by double fortress
towers, each tower having a double drawbridge,
made any attack almost a forlorn hope. The
Regent's departure from Paris points to the
little fear he felt that Paris could be taken by
assault ; and in this matter Bedford judged
rightly.

Whether or not Joan felt that some Divine
assistance would enable her to surmount the
barriers that lay between her and the town
she was so determined to win back for her King,
we cannot say. She fought below the walls
with a courage which, if the others had equalled,
might have made Paris their own. The attack-
ing force was divided into two parts — one, com-
manded by Joan, Rais, and De Gaucourt, was to
attack the city at the Gate of Saint Honor^ ;
the other, led by Alengon and Clermont, was
to cover the assailants, and prevent any sorties
being made by the garrison.

Joan's impetuous onslaught successfully car-
ried the first barriers and the boulevard in front
of the gate ; but here she met with a check —
the heavy gates were barred, nor could she pre-
vail on the enemy to make a sortie.

Joan of Arc, carrying her flag, dashed, under
a heavy fire, into the ditch, followed by a few of
the most courageous of the soldiers. The ditch
was a deep but a dry one ; and rising on the
further side, close beneath the town walls, was a
second and a wider moat, full of water. Here,

no JOAN OF ARC.

unable to advance, but unwilling to retire, Joan of
Arc and her followers were exposed to a mur-
derous hail of shot, arrows, and other missiles.
Sending for fagots and fascines to be cast into the
moat, in order to enable a kind of bridge to be
thrown across, while probing with the staff of her
banner the depth of the water, Joan was struck
by a cross-bow bolt, which made a deep wound
in her thigh. Refusing to leave the spot, she
urged on the soldiers to fill the ditch. The day
was waxing late, and the men, who had been fight-
ing since noon, were nearly exhausted. The news
of Joan having been wounded caused a kind of
panic among the French. There came a lull in
the fighting, and the recall was sounded. Joan
had almost to be forced back from before the walls
by the Duke of Alengon and other of the officers.
Placed upon her horse, she was led back to the
camp, Joan protesting the whole time that if the
attack had only been continued it would have
been crowned with success. The spot where the
heroine is supposed to have been wounded is
near where now stands Fremiet's spirited statue
of the Maid of Orleans, between the Rue Saint
Honor^ — named in later days after the gate she
had so gallantly attacked — and the Gardens of
the Tuileries.

Within the town a great fear had fallen on the
citizens, divided as they were between the hope
of their countrymen forcing their way into the
city and fear as to how they would be treated by
Charles should he be victorious. Perhaps, had
Joan of Arc's urgent entreaties of continuing the

THE CAPTURE. in

attack been more vigorously responded to by the
other French commanders, she might have been
in the end successful. At any rate Joan herself
was of that opinion.

The following day she was, in spite of the
previous evening's failure and her wound, as
urgent as ever for further fighting ; and again and
again implored Alenqon to renew the attack. It
seems the Duke was on the point of complying,
when there appeared on the scene Rene d'Anjou
and Clermont, sent by the King with the order
for the Maid's immediate return to Saint Denis.
There was nothing to do but to obey, but it must
have been a bitter disappointment to the brave
maiden when she turned her back on Paris.
Alen9on did his best to encourage her in the
hope that it might yet fall. He gave orders for
a bridge to be thrown across the Seine at Saint
Denis, in order to make a fresh attack on the city
from that quarter. However, on the next night
this bridge was ordered by Charles to be re-
moved, and with its destruction fell any hopes
Joan might still have entertained of being able
to take Paris.

All the blame of the want of success of the
army before Paris was now laid at the door of
Joan of Arc ; and the creatures of the Court, who
had long waited for an opportunity of this kind
to show their bitter jealousy of the heroine, now
made no secret of their enmity. Foremost of
these was the Archbishop of Rheims, who now,
in spite of Joan of Arc's entreaties, was allowed by
the King to make a truce with the enemy. Another

112 JOAN OF ARC.

powerful foe was La Tremoille, who {as has been
pointed out by Captain Marin in his work on Joan
of Arc) thought it to be against his personal in-
fluence that the French should take Paris. La
Tremoille had shown, from Joan's first appearance
at Court, his entire want of confidence in her
mission. He had unwillingly, after the examina-
tion of the Maid by the doctors and lawyers at
Poitiers, conformed to the King's wish that a com-
mand should be given her in the army. He had
done all in his power to induce the King not to
undertake the expedition to Rheims. He had
told the King, when nothing else could be urged
against the journey, that there was no money
in the royal coffers, and that consequently the
soldiers would not receive their pay. As it turned
out, volunteers offered their services gratuitously
to escort Charles to his crowning. At Auxerre,
La Tremoille concluded a treaty with the citizens,
which prevented Joan from taking that town. At
Troyes he tried to create a like impediment ; but
here he was foiled, for Troyes capitulated. After
the coronation, he persuaded Charles not to go to
Paris, but to go instead to linger in his castle on
the Loire ; and thereby prevented what might then
have proved a successful attack on the capital.
And he again succeeded in thwarting the Maid of
Orleans when he resisted her wish to make a
second attack upon Paris. Later on it was La
Tremoille who tried to make Joan of Arc fail at
the siege of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier. When she
was unsuccessful before La Charitd-sur-Loire, and
when the blame of that failure was laid at Joan's

FIFTEENTH CENTURY HOUSES^COMPIEGNE.

THE CAPTURE. 113

door, La Tremoille for very shame was obliged
publicly to acknowledge the heroic zeal with
which she had carried out the operations of that
siege. The higher Joan's popularity rose among
the people and in the army, the more her two
bitter enemies, La Tremoille and the Archbishop
of Rheims, shared between them their jealous
dislike.

Thus, even before her capture and trial, Joan
of Arc met with some of her worst foes among
those whose duty it was to have been her
staunchest friends and helpers ; and, deplorable
to say, among her own countrymen.

Charles left Saint Denis on the 13th of
September. Before his departure, Joan of Arc
performed an act which indicated that she felt
her mission to be finished. In the old fane of
Saint Denis, the tomb-house of the long line
of French kings, she solemnly placed her armour
and arms at the foot of an image of the Holy
Mother, near the spot where were kept the relics
of the Patron Saint of France. By that act of
humility she seemed to wish to show her ab-
negation of any further earthly victory by the
aid of arms.

We have now arrived at the turning-point
of Joan of Arc's successes, and although the
heroine is even more admirable in her days of
misfortune and suffering than in those of her
triumphs, when she led her followers on from
victory to victory, the course of her brief life
now darkens rapidly, and the approaching fate
of the brave-hearted maiden is so terrible that

II

114 JOAN OF ARC.

it requires some courage to follow her to the
very end, glorious as that end was, and bright
with its sainted heroism.

The King's return journey from Compiegne
to Gien was so hurried that it almost re-
sembled a flight. Avoiding the towns still
doubtful in their loyalty to him, Charles sped
from Lagny to Bovins, then to Bray, Cour-
tenay. Chateau- Regnaut, and Montargis, arriving
at Gien on the 21st of September. Ere this
time there could be little doubt of the Duke
of Burgundy's unwillingness to abide by his
pledge, and restore Paris to Charles. The
Duke and Bedford had in fact already come to
terms. The Regent resigned to Burgundy the
Lieutenancy of the country, keeping only the
now empty title of Regent and the charge of
Normandy. The result of the King's with-
drawal from the neighbourhood of Paris, and
his hurried march, or rather retreat, to Gien,
was that the English felt that there was now
no longer any fear of their being drawn out of
the capital. They promptly marched on and
occupied Saint Denis, pillaging that town and
carrying off as a trophy the arms which Joan
of Arc had placed by the shrine of Saint Denis,
in the ancient basilica of Dagobert.

The other towns, which had so recently re-
turned to their allegiance to Charles, were
again abandoned to the English, who punished
them by levying large ransoms on the citizens.
The surrounding country was laid waste, and
Joan of Arc had the mortification of seeing

THE CAPTURE. 115

that, without any attempt being made to defend
her people, the places which had so shortly
before been the scene of her triumphs were
now allowed to be reoccupied by the English
and their allies. Normandy, Picardy, and Bur-
gundy were once more in possession of the
enemy.

At length Joan obtained Charles' permission
to attack La Charite, where the enemy were in
force, and from whence they threatened the
French forts on the Loire. At Bourses she
assembled a few troops, and in company with the
Sire d'Albret she laid siege to Saint Pierre-le-
Moutier. Then, although feebly supported, Joan
led the first column of attack. This attacking
column might have been called a forlorn hope, so
few men had she with her. The little party
were repulsed, and at one moment her squire,
d'Aulon, saw that his brave mistress was fighting
alone, surrounded by the English. At great peril
she was rescued from the meMe. Asked how
she could hope to succeed in taking the place
with hardly any support, she answered, while
she raised her helmet, ' There are fifty thousand
of my host around me,' alluding to the vision of
angels that in moments of extreme peril she
relied on. D'Aulon in vain urged her to beat
a retreat, and retire to a place of safety ; she
insisted on renewing the attack, and gave orders
for crossing the moat on logs and fascines. A
roughly constructed bridge over the fosse was
then made, and after a desperate struggle the
fortress was taken.

ii6 JOAN OF ARC.

This occurred early in the month of No-
vember (1429). A few years ago a stained-
Sflass window commemorative of the Maid of
Orleans having saved the church in Saint
Pierre-le-Moutier (it had been converted by
the besieged into a warehouse for the goods
and chattels of the citizens) was placed in
the building she had preserved from destruc-
tion.

The next siege undertaken by Joan of Arc
was that of La Charite — a far larger and more
strongly garrisoned town than the other. La
Charite was held by one Peter Grasset, who had
been its governor for seven years. It was not
only strongly' defended by fortifications, but fully
victualled for a prolonged siege. Joan and her
little army had not the material necessary for
carrying on such a siege as that of La Charite
would require — the very sinews of war were want-
ing. Charles would not or could not contri-
bute a single 6cu d'or, and Joan had to solicit
help and funds from the towns. In the public
library at Riom is preserved the original letter
addressed by the Maid of Orleans to ' My dear
and good friends the clergy, burghers, and citi-
zens of the town of Riom.' It was sent to that
place on the 9th of November from Moulins. In
this letter, the only one to which is affixed the
Maid's signature, spelt ' Jehonne,' possibly signed
by herself, she says that her friends at Riom are
aware of how the town of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier
had been taken, and she adds that she has the
intention of driving out [de faire vider) the other

THE CAPTURE. 117

towns hostile to King Charles. She begs the
citizens of Riom, in order to accomplish this, to
provide her with the means of pushing forward
the siege of La Charit^, and asks them to supply
her with powder, saltpetre, sulphur, bows and
arrows, cross-bows, and other material of war,
having exhausted all her stock of such things
in the late siesfe. Whether or not the burghers
of Riom were able to carry out Joan's wishes
is not known. The town of Bourges, however,
provided funds out of its customs, and Orleans
also sent soldiers and artillerymen ['j'oueurs de
coulverines') to the Maid's army for the siege of
La Charitd.

But in spite of all efforts Joan of Arc was
destined to fail in this undertaking. No doubt
her enemies at Court helped to thwart all her
attempts at raising a sufficient force to beleaguer
so strong a place of arms, and seeing her hopes
of taking La Charite by assault vanish, Joan of
Arc relinquished the undertaking.

The remainder of that winter Joan of Arc
passed in what must have tried her high spirit
sorely — inaction.

Accompanying the Court, she went from
Bourges to Sully-sur- Loire, and revisited Or-
leans. In the latter town we find some traces
of her passage, and some further traits of her
sweet nature, and of that simplicity which had
endeared her so deeply to the hearts of the
people : a disposition no success altered, no dis-
appointment embittered. What was the chief
charm of her character was this simplicity,

Ii8 JOAN OF ARC.

her entire freedom from self-glorification, her
horror of it being imagined that she was a
supernatural or miraculous being, even when
those supernatural and miraculous powers were
considered as coming direct to her from Heaven
— in fact, to use a slang but expressive phrase,
her utter freedom from humbug. This is one
of the most marked features of her character,
although not the most glorious or salient to
those who are dazzled by her triumphs and
extraordinary career.

When she was told by people that they
could well understand how little she feared being
in action and under fire, knowing that she had
a charmed life, she answered them that she
had no more assurance of not being killed than
the commonest of her soldiers ; and when some
foolish creatures brought her their rosaries and
beads to touch, she told them to touch these
themselves, and that their rosaries would benefit
quite as much as if she had done so.

On one occasion at Lagny she was asked
to resuscitate a dead child. One of the oreatest
of the French nobles wrote to ask her which
of the rival Popes was the true one. When
asked on the eve of a battle who would be
victor, she answered that she could no more
tell than any of the soldiers could. A woman
named Catherine de la Rochelle, who assumed
the power of knowing where money was hidden,
was commanded by the King to take Joan of
Arc into her confidence. The latter soon dis-
covered that Catherine was a fraud, and refused

THE CAPTURE. 119

to have anything to do with her. Catherine had
suggested going to the Duke of Burgundy to
arrange a peace between him and the French
King, to which proposition Joan of Arc very
sensibly said that it seemed to her that no
peace could be made between them but at the
lance's point. Joan had seen too much of the
duplicity of the Duke to believe in any of his
treaties and promises.

The early months of the year 1430 were
months of anxiety for the citizens of Orleans
and the other towns which had thrown off the
English allegiance. The truce made between
Burgundy and France expired at Christmas of
the former year, but was renewed till Easter.
Early in the year, the burghers of Rheims
implored help of Joan of Arc, and not of the
King, thus proving how far greater trust was
placed in the hands of the Maid of Orleans,
by such a town as Rheims, than in the good-
will of the King.

Twice during the month of March did Joan
have letters written to reassure them of aid
in case of need. ' Know,' she says in a letter
dated the 1 6th of March, ' that if I can pre-
vent it you will not be assailed ; and if I can-
not come to your rescue, close your gates, and
I will make them [the English] buckle on their
'spurs in such a hurry that they will not be able
to use them.'

In the second letter to the people of Rheims,
written at Sully on the 28th of March, Joan
tells them that they will soon hear some good

I20 JOAN OF ARC.

news about herself. This good news referred
no doubt to her return to the field, for we find
that by the end of that month she was again
on the march.

It was early in the month of April, 1430, that
Joan of Arc left the Court and rode to the north,
on what was to prove her last expedition. It
is said that while at Melun, during Easter week,
she was told by her voices that she would be
taken prisoner before St. John's Day.

It was at Lagny that an incident occurred
which formed one of the accusations brought
against the Maid by her judges, and to which re-
ference may now be made. A freebooter, named
Franquet d' Arras, had, at the head of a band of
about three hundred English freelances, held all
the country-side in terror round about Lagny.
Hearing of this, being in the neighbourhood of
Lagny, Joan of Arc gave orders that Franquet
and his band should be attacked. The French
were in number about equal to the English.
After a stubborn fight, the English were all
killed or captured. Among the latter was the
chief of the robbers, Franquet d' Arras. It was
proved before the bailiff and justices of Lagny
that Franquet had not only been a thief, but a
murderer, and he was consequently condemned
to die. Joan of Arc wished that he should
be exchanged for a French prisoner, but this
French prisoner had meanwhile died. The
justices of Lagny insisted on having their sen-
tence carried out, to which Joan at length un-
willingly gave way, and Franquet met with his

THE CAPTURE. 121

deserts. We cannot see how the Maid was to
blame in this affair ; but this thing was one of
the accusations which helped to bring her to
the stake.

On the 17th of April the truce agreed to
between King Charles and Burgundy came to
an end. At this time the town of greatest
strategical importance to Burgundy was that
of Compiegne. Holding Compiegne, the Duke
of Burgundy held the key of France. King
Charles, with his habitual carelessness, had been
on the point of handing over Compiegne to the
Duke as a pledge of peace ; and no doubt he
would have done so had not the inhabitants
protested. Charles then surrendered the town
of Pont Sainte-Maxence to Burgundy instead
of Compiegne. But this sop did not at all
satisfy the greedy Duke, whose mouth watered
for Compiegne, which he was determined to ob-
tain by fair or by foul means. At Soissons
the Duke had succeeded in gaining the Gover-
nor by a bribe, and had, through this bribe,
obtained the place ; and there is little reason
not to suppose that he was still more ready to
offer a still greater bribe to obtain Compiegne.
The Governor of Compiegne, William de Fla-
vigny — a man very deeply suspected, writes
Michelet of him — was not likely to refuse a
bribe ; and, as we shall see, he acted in a man-
ner that has made the accusation of his treachery
to his country and Joan of Arc almost a cer-
tainty.

It was to prevent, if possible, Compiegne

122 JOAN OF ARC.

falling into the hands of Burgundy that Joan of
Arc hastened to its defence. On the 13th of
May she reached Compiegne, where she was
received with great joy by the citizens. The
Maid lodged in the town with Mary le Boucher,
wife of the Procureur of the King. At Com-
piegne were some important Court officials — the
Chancellor Regnault de Chartres, no friend to
Joan as we have seen, Vendome, and others.
The country around and the places of armed
strength were all in the occupation of the
English and Burgundians ; near Noyon, the
town of Pont-l'Eveque was in the possession of
the English. This place Joan of Arc attacked,
and she was on the point of capturing it when a
strong force of Burgundians arrived from Noyon,
and Joan had to beat a retreat on Crecy. On
the 23rd of May, news reached Joan that Com-
piegne was threatened by the united English
and ' Burgundian forces, under the command of
the Duke and the Earl of Arundel. By mid-
night of that day, Joan of Arc was back again
in Compiegne. She had been warned of the
danger of passing, to gain the town, through the
enemies' lines with so small a company.

' Never fear ! ' she answered, ' we are enough.
I must go and see my good friends at Compiegne.'

These words have been appropriately placed
on the pedestal of the statue of the heroine in
front of the Hotel de Ville in Compiegne.

By sunrise all her troopers were within the
town : not a man was missing.

Compiegne was a strongly fortified place,

THE CAPTURE. 123

resting on the left bank of the river Oise,
across which, as at Orleans, one long stoutly
defended bridge connected the right bank with
the town. In front of the bridge was one of
those redoubts which were in those days called
' boulevards.' This boulevard was surrounded
by a wet moat or ditch connected with the
principal bridge by a drawbridge, closed or
opened from within at pleasure. The town
was surrounded and protected by a broad and
deep moat, filled from the river. Behind this
moat rose the town walls, girt with strong
towers at short intervals. On the right bank
of the river extended a wide stretch of fertile
meadow land, bounded on the northern horizon
by the soft low-lying hills of Picardy. From the
circuit of the walls across the plain the eye
rested on the towns of Margny, of Clairvoix,
and of Venette. The Burgundians were en-
camped- at Margny and at Clairvoix ; the Eng-
lish, under the command of Montgomery, were
encamped at Venette.

The evening of the day on which she had
arrived at Compiegne (the 24th of May), Joan of
Arc resolved to attack the Burgundians, both at
Margny and also at Clairvoix. Her plan was
to draw out the Duke of Burgundy, should he
come to the support of his men at these places.
As to the English at Venette, she trusted that
Flavy with his troops at Compiegne would
prevent them from cutting her off after her
attack on the Burgundians, and so intercepting
her return to the town ; but this unfortunately
was the very disaster which occurred.

124 JOAN OF ARC.

In front of the bridge the redoubts were
filled by French archers to keep off any attack
made by the English, and Flavy had placed a
large number of boats filled with armed men,
principally bowmen, in readiness along the river
to receive their companions should they meet
with a repulse in their attack on the Bur-
gundians.

It was about five o'clock that afternoon
when Joan of Arc rode out of Compiegne at
the head of five hundred horsemen and foot
soldiers. Flavy remained within the town, of
which he was Governor. The attack led by
the Maid on Margny, with splendid impetuosity,
proved a complete success, and the enemy fled
for shelter to their companions at Clairvoix.
Here the resistance made was far more stub-
born. While the French and Burgundians
were combating in the meadows at Clairvoix,
the English came from Venette to the assist-
ance of their allies, and attacked the French in
their rear. A panic was created by this at-
tack among the French troops, and a sauve qui
petit ensued, both foot and horse dashing back
in confusion towards Compiegne, and when
they reached the river either taking refuge in
the boats or on the redoubts near the bridge.
Mixed among this panic-stricken crowd of fugi-
tives came the English in hot pursuit, followed
by the Burgundians.

Carried away by the throng of frightened
soldiers, Joan was among the last to leave
the field, and to those who cried to her to

THE CAPTURE. 125

make her escape she answered that all might
yet be saved, and urged her men to rally.
Nevertheless, she was forced back towards the
bridge, across which fugitives were making
their escape into the town. In a few seconds
Joan could have been safe across the draw-
bridge, and under shelter of the towers which
defended it. At this instant, whether inten-
tionally to exclude the heroine from safety, or
through panic and fear of the Burgundians
and English entering the town along with
the French, the drawbridge was lifted, and
Joan, with a handful of the faithful few who
were ever at her side in time of peril, was
surrounded by a sea of foemen. In a mo-
ment half a dozen soldiers secured her horse
and seized her on every side, trying to drag
her out of the saddle. The long skirts which
the heroine wore were soon torn off by these
rough hands. An archer of Picardy, belonging
to the army of John of Luxembourg, wrenched
her from her horse and made her prisoner.
Her brother Peter, her faithful squire d'Aulon,
and Pothon de Xaintrailles were all captured at
the same time.

Thus fell Joan of Arc into the hands of
her enemies, and the question whether through
treachery or not has never been settled.

According to an old work published early
in the sixteenth century, called Le Miroir des
Femmes Vertucuses, Joan of Arc had taken the
communion in the Church of Saint James at
Compiegne, and was standing leaning against a

126 JOAN OF ARC.

pillar of that church ; a large number of citizens
with many children stood around, to whom she
said : 'My children and dear frierrdsT I bid you
to mark that I have been sold and betrayed,
and that I shall be shortly put to death. So I
beseech you all to pray to God for me, for
never more shall I be able to be of service to
the King or to the kingdom of France.'

This story, which, whether authentic or not,
is surely a touching one, is full of the spirit of
the heroine. It rests upon the testimony of
two persons, one eighty-six and the other eighty-
eight years of age, by whom the author was
told the tale in 1498, both affirming that they
had been in the church when Joan of Arc
spoke of her betrayal. There can be but little
doubt that Joan had had for some time be-
fore she went to Compiegne a presentiment
of her soon falling into her enemies' power.
On the eve of the King's coronation at Rheims
she said to her friends that what she alone
feared was treason — a foreboding too soon,
alas ! to come true. She never, however,
seems to have fixed on any particular period
when the treason she dreaded would occur ; and
during her trial she acknowledged that, had
she known she would have been taken prisoner
during the sortie on the 24th of May, she would
not have undertaken that adventure.

One of her best historians, M. Wallon,
thinks that the words which she is supposed
to have spoken to the people in the Church of
Saint James at Compiegne were owing to her

THE CAPTURE. 127

discouragement at not having, a few weeks
previously, been able to cross the river Aisne
at Soissons, and thus finding herself prevented
from attacking the Duke of Burgundy at Cholsy,
and thence having been obliged to return to
Compiegne. Wallon points out that in com-
ing to defend Compiegne, Joan of Arc came
entirely at her own instigation, and that during
the previous six months Flavy had defended
Compiegne against the English and Burgun-
dians with success and energy ; nay more,
that, in spite of bribes from the Duke of Bur-
gundy, Flavy contrived to hold the town till the
close of the war.

On the other side, a recent writer of the
heroine's life, especially as regarded from a
military standpoint, M. Marin, gives at great
length his reasons for believing in the treachery
of Flavy. M. Marin points out that, in the
first place, Flavy's character was a notoriously
bad one ; secondly, that he was very possibly
under the influence of both La Tremoille and
the Chancellor Regnault de Chartres, bitter
opponents, as we have already shown, of
the Maid ; thirdly, that it was in Flavy's in-
terest that the prestige of saving Compiegne
from the Burgundians and English should be
entirely owing to his own conduct ; and
fourthly, that he, Flavy, with the majority of the
French officers, was affected against Joan of
Arc since the execution of Franquet d'Arras.
M. Marin goes on to prove that Joan of Arc
might have been rescued without difficulty.

128 JOAN OF ARC.

and that the enemy could not have forced
their way into the town alongside of the re-
treating French, unless they were ready to be
cut up as soon as they had come within its
walls. M. Marin's opinion, having the autho-
rity of a soldier, carries weight with it ; and
his opinion is that Joan of Arc was deliber-
ately betrayed by Flavy, and purposely allowed
to fall into the hands of her enemies.

The names of La Tremoille and Regnault
de Chartres should also be pilloried by the
side of that of Flavy — the two great cour-
tiers who held the ear of the King, and who
had always plotted against Joan of Arc. As
has already been said, it was Regnault de
Chartres who had the effrontery to announce
the news of Joan of Arc's capture to the citi-
zens of Rheims as being a judgment of
Heaven upon her. She had, this mean pre-
late said, offended God by her pride, and in
wearing rich apparel, and in having preferred
to follow her own will rather than that of God !
Verily, and with reason, might poor Joan have
prayed to be delivered from such friends as
those creatures and courtiers about her Kins',
for whom she had done and suffered so much.

The archer who had captured Joan of Arc
was in the pay of the Bastard of Wandome,
or Wandoune, and this Wandome was himself
in the service of John de Ligny, a vassal of
the Duke of Burgundy, and a cadet of the

TOUR DE LA PUCFXLE— COMPIEGNE.

THE CAPTURE. ii$

princely house of Luxembourg. Like most
younger sons, John de Ligny was badly off,
and the temptation of the English reward in
exchange for his prisoner, whose escape he
greatly feared, overtopped any scruples he may
have felt in receiving this blood-money.

The historian Monstrelet tells us he was
present when Joan of Arc was brought into
the Burgundian camp, at Margny, and before
the Duke of Burgundy. But the old chronicler
relates nothing with regard to that eventful
meeting ; only he is eloquent on the joy caused
by the capture of the Maid of Orleans among
the English and their allies ; and he tells us
that in their opinion Joan's capture was equal
by itself to that of five hundred ordinary pri-
soners, for they had feared her, he adds, more
than all the other French leaders put together.
Of the high opinion held by her enemies of the
Maid's influence, one could not ask for a more
remarkable proof than this testimony, coming as
it does from a partisan of her foes.

After three days passed at Margny, Joan
of Arc was taken, for greater security, by Lux-
embourg to the castle of Beaulieu, in Picardy.

CHAPTER V.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL.

npHE news of Joan's capture soon reached
•^ Paris, and within a few hours of that
event becoming known, the Vicar-General of the
Order of the Inquisition sent a letter to the
Duke of Burgundy, accompanied by another
from the University of Paris, praying that Joan
of Arc might be delivered up to the keeping
of Mother Church as a sorceress and idolatress.
That terrible engine, the Inquisition, had, like
some mighty reptile scenting its prey near,
slowly unfolded its coils. Whether Bedford
had or had not caused these letters to be sent
the Duke is not known, but the Regent had
both in the Church and the University of Paris
the men he wanted — instruments by whom his
vengeance could be worked on Joan of Arc ;
and he had the astuteness to see that in calling-
in the aid of the Church, and treating Joan of
Arc as a heretic and witch, the rules of war
could be laid aside. What no civilised body of
men could do, namely, kill a prisoner of war.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 131

that thing could be done in the name and by
the authority of the Church and its holy office ;
and in the Bishop of Beauvais, the inexorable
Cauchon, Bedford had the tool necessary to
his hand whereby this dastardly plot could be
carried out.

The first move that Bedford now was ob-
liged to take was to secure the victim ; and in
order to do so the Bishop of Beauvais was
applied to. The name of Peter Cauchon, Bishop
of Beauvais, will go down to the latest posterity
with the execration of humanity, for the part
he played in the tragedy of the worst of judicial
murders of which any record exists. Let us
give even the devil his due. According to
Michelet the Bishop was ' not a man without
merit,' although the historian does not say in
what Cauchon's merit consisted. Born at
Rheims, he had been considered a learned
priest when at the University of Paris ; but he
had the reputation of being a harsh and vin-
dictive opponent to all who disagreed with his
views, within or without the Church. He was
forced to leave Paris, in 141 3, for some mis-
conduct. It was then that Cauchon became
a strong partisan of the Duke of Burgundy.
It was through the Duke that he obtained the
See of Beauvais. The English also favoured
Cauchon, and obtained for him a high post in
the University of Paris. When the tide of
French success reached Beauvais, in 1429,
Cauchon was obliged to escape, and found
shelter in England. There Winchester received

132 JOAN OF ARC.

him with cordiality. While in England, Cauchon
became a thorough partisan of the English,
and the humble servant of the proud Prince-
Cardinal. Winchester promised Cauchon pre-
ferment, and, when the See of Rouen fell vacant,
recommended the Pope to place Cauchon on its
throne. The Pope, however, refused his consent,
and the Rouen Chapters would hear naught
of the Anglicised Bishop. At that time the
Church at Rouen was at war with the University
of Paris, and did not wish one of the members
of that University placed over it.

Joan of Arc's place of capture happened to
be in the diocese of Beauvais, and although
Cauchon was now only nominally Bishop of
Beauvais, he still retained that title. Cauchon
now placed himself, body and soul, at the dis-
posal of the English, hoping thereby sooner to
obtain the long-coveted Archbishopric of Rouen
in exchange for helping his friends to the ut-
most in his power by furthering their schemes
and in ridding them of their prisoner once and
for ever. The bait held out by Winchester
and Bedford was the Archbishopric of Rouen,
and eagerly did Cauchon seize his prey. What
added to his zeal was his wish to gratify base
feelings of revenge on those who had thrust
him out of his Bishopric of Beauvais, and
on her without whose deeds he might have
still been living in security in his palatial home
there.

After a consultation with the leaders of the
University of Paris, Cauchon arrived at the

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 133

Burgundian camp before Compiegne on the
14th of July, and claimed Joan of Arc as
prisoner from the keeping of the Duke of
Burgundy. Cauchon justified his demand by
letters which he had obtained from the doctors
of the University, and he made the offer in the
name of the child-king of England. The sum
handed over for the purchase of the prisoner
was 10,000 livres tournois, equivalent to 61,125
francs of French money of to-day — about ;^2400
sterling. This was the ordinary price in that
day for the ransom of any prisoner of high
rank. Luxembourg, to his shame and that of
his order, consented to the sale on those terms,
and Cauchon soon returned with the news of
his bargain to his English employers.

The whole transaction sounds more like what
one might expect to have occurred amongst an
uncivilised nation rather than among a people
who prided themselves on their chivalry and
their usages of fair-play in matters relating to
warfare. That a high dignitary of the Church,
and a countryman of Joan of Arc, should have
bought her from a prince, the descendant of
emperors and kings, also a countryman of the
heroic Maid, for English gold, is bad enough;
and that the so-called 'good' Duke of Bur-
gundy should have been a silent spectator of
the infamous transaction, brands all the actors
as among the most sordid and meanest of indi-
viduals. But what is infinitely worse is the fact
that no steps appear to have been taken by
Charles to rescue the Maid, or to attempt an

134 JOAN OF ARC.

exchange of her for any other prisoner or
prisoners.

Thus Joan of Arc, bound Hterally hand and
foot, was led Hke a lamb to the shambles, not
a hand being raised by those for whom she had
done such great and noble deeds.

The University of Paris, whose decisions car-
ried so great a weight in the issue of the trial
of the Maid of Orleans, consisted at this period
of an ecclesiastical body of doctors ; but as far
as its attributes consisted it was a body secular,
and holding an independent position owing to
its many privileges. The University was a
political as well as an ecclesiastical body, su-
preme under the Pope above the whole of the
Galilean Church. Although divided into two
parties through the war then raging between
England and France, its judicature was greatly
influenced by the Church. It was a matter of
certainty that the Doctors of Theology who sat
in the University of Paris, and who were all,
or nearly all, French by birth, would favour the
English, and give an adverse decision to that
of those French ecclesiastics who had examined
into Joan's life and character when assembled
at Poitiers, and who then considered her to be
acting under the influence and with the protec-
tion of the Almighty.

As a prisoner, Joan of Arc's behaviour was
as modest and courageous as it had been in
her days of success and liberty. In the first
times of her durance, d'Aulon, who, as we men-
tioned, had been captured at the same time,

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 135

appears to have been allowed to remain with
her. On his telling her that he feared Com-
piegne would now probably be taken by the
enemy, Joan of Arc said such a thing could not
occur, 'For all the places,' she added, 'which
the King of Heaven has placed in the keeping
of King Charles by my means will never again
be retaken by his enemies, at any rate as long
as he cares to keep them.'

Although willing to endure for the sake of
her beloved country all the cruelty' her enemies
could inflict upon her, Joan was most anxious
to return in order to continue her mission.
While in the castle of Beaulieu she made a
desperate attempt to escape. She managed to
squeeze herself between two beams of wood
placed across an opening in her prison, and
was on the point of leaving her dungeon tower
when one of the jailers caught sight of her,
and she was retaken. Probably in consequence
of this attempt, Joan of Arc, after an imprison-
ment of four months at Beaulieu, was transferred
thence by Ligny to his castle of Beaurevoir,
near the town of Cambrai, a place far re-
moved from the neighbourhood of the war, and
consequently more secure than Beaulieu. At
Beaurevoir lived the wife and the aunt of
Ligny ; they showed some attention and com-
passion to the prisoner. They offered her some
of their dresses, and tried to persuade her to
quit her male attire. Joan, however, refused :
she gave as her reason for not complying with
their request that the time had not yet arrived

136 yOAN OF ARC.

for her to cease wearing the clothes she had
worn during the time of her mission. That
she had good reason not to don woman's attire
even when at Beaurevoir, and keep to her male
attire as a protection, is probable, as she was
not safe from wanton insult at the hands of
the rough soldiery placed about her person.
This clinging to her male dress, we shall see,
under similar circumstances at Rouen, was the
principal indictment made against her by her
executioners.

At Beaurevoir Joan of Arc was placed in a
chamber at the top of a high tower, whence
Ligny thought that no attempt at escape would
be made, but Joan of Arc tried once again to
recover her liberty. In the course of her trial
she told her judges how her voices counselled
her not again to make this venture, and of her
perplexity whether she should obey them, or, at
the risk of her life, escape from the clutches of
the English, for at this time she knew that she
had been sold to her bitterest foes.

What appears to have determined her de-
cision was hearing that Compiegne was in
imminent peril of falling into the hands of the
English, and that the inhabitants would be
massacred. In her desperation, feeling, like
-young Arthur, that

' The wall is high ; and yet will I leap down : —
Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not ! . . .
As good to die, and go, as die, and stay'

she knotted some thongs together and let her-
self out of a window ; but the thongs broke, and

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 137

she fell from a great height — the tower is sup-
posed to have been no less than sixty feet high.
She was found unconscious at its foot, and for
several days she was not expected to recover
from the injuries she had received. But she
was doomed for a far more terrible death.

For several days Joan of Arc took no nour-
ishment. Gradually she revived, and she told
her jailers that her beloved Saint Catherine
had visited and comforted her ; and she also
told them that she knew Compiegne would not
be taken, and would be free from its enemies
before the Feast of Saint Martin.

Beaurevoir is now a ruin : although above
the lintel can still be seen the coat-of-arms of
the jailer of the Maid, the tower in which she
was imprisoned, and from which she so nearly
met her death, has been destroyed.

In the month of November of that year
(1430), in spite of the entreaties of his wife
and aunt, Ligny delivered up his prisoner into
the custody of the Duke of Burgundy, from
whose keeping she was soon transferred into
that of the English.

On the 20th of November the University
of Paris sent a message to Cauchon, advising
him to bring Joan of Arc before a tribunal.
Cauchon, however, waited the arrival of Win-
chester, bringing with him his great-nephew,
Henry VI. Winchester arrived with the boy-
king on the 2nd of December. The Cardinal
intended the function of the crowning of his
great-nephew to be as imposing a ceremony

138 JOAN OF ARC.

as possible ; and he also meant, by defaming
the source of the French King's successes, to
show the French people that Charles' coronation
at Rheims had been brought about by what
the Regent Bedford called a 'limb of the evil
one.' It was, therefore, Bedford's plan that it
should be declared before the world that Joan
of Arc was inspired by Satanic agencies, and
that consequently the French King's coronation
was also due to these agencies. By similar
means it would be made clear that all the
French victories were owing to the same in-
fluence ; for were it not, argued the English,
they would be proved to have been themselves
fighting against and defeated by — not the spirit
of evil but — the spirit of righteousness.

Nothing, indeed, could be clearer than Win-
chester's argument. It was now only necessary
that Joan of Arc should be at once placed on
her trial as a sorceress and a witch — one
who was in league with the evil one ; and,
when that had been satisfactorily proved, that
she should publicly meet with the fate which
a merciful Church had, in its infinite wisdom,
ordained for such as she. Thus would the
English army and people be avenged, and the
French King's crown and prerogative suffer an
irreparable damage.

From Beaurevoir, Joan of Arc was first taken
to the town of Arras, thence to Crotoy, where,
about the 21st of November, she was handed
over to the English.

A chronicler of that day writes that the

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 139

English rejoiced as greatly on that occasion as
if they had received all the wealth of Lombardy.
The Duke of Burgundy had never merited the
title of 'Good,' v^rhich, somehow^ or other, has
been linked vi^ith his name. Had he been the
most virtuous of princes of any time, he yet
deserves to have his memory branded for the
part he then took in the sale of Joan of Arc — a
transaction whereof the poor excuse of not losing
the benefits of his alliance with the English
avails nothing. For this, if nothing else, we
reverse the good fame which lying history has
accorded him.

In the underground portion of a tower at
Crotoy, still to be seen, although the upper
part has disappeared, facing the sea, is a door-
way, which local tradition points out as that of
the dungeon of Joan of Arc. Crotoy, or Le
Crotoy, is on the coast of Picardy, a little to
the north of Abbeville. In the fifteenth century
it was a place of some warlike importance,
especially to the English. Its situation near
the coast, and the strength of its fortress, made
Le Crotoy one of the principal places on the
sea line, whence stores and war provender
could be carried into France. Le Crotoy had
fallen into possession of the English through
the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of
Castille, Countess of Ponthieu, of which Crotoy
formed a part. During the hundred years'
war, the port could receive vessels of con-
siderable tonnage ; and from this point the
booty taken by the English could be shipped

140 JOAN OF ARC.

and sent across the Channel. Now but a few-
vestiges can be traced of its once strong and
ably fortified castle. A few years ago, a statue,
representing the Maid of Orleans in the garb
of a prisoner, was placed near the ruins of the
castle in which she passed most of the month
of December, 1430.

At Crotoy, Joan of Arc was permitted to
assist at the celebration of the Mass in the
chapel of the castle ; and while here she re-
ceived a visit from some of her admirers from
Abbeville — a few noble hearts who still re-
mained loyal to the once all-powerful deliveress
of their country, now a poor and abandoned
prisoner on her road to a long imprisonment
and a cruel death ! Touched by this mark of
syrnpathy from these Abbeville folk, Joan gave
them, on parting from them, her blessing, and
asked them to remember her in their prayers.
The enlightened clergy and doctors, lay and
spiritual, who formed the body known as the
University of Paris, preferred that Joan of Arc
should be sent to the capital, there to undergo
her trial, and wrote to this effect to Bedford,
through the name of the boy-king. They also
despatched a letter to Cauchon (probably inspired
by Bedford), in which they rated him for not
bringing the Maid at once to her trial. They
told him he was showing a lamentable lax-
ness in not immediately punishing the scandals
which had been committed under his jurisdic-
tion against the Christian religion.

Paris was not considered enough of a safe

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 141

place to take Joan of Arc into ; the French lay
too near its walls, and the loyalty of its citizens
to the English was a doubtful quantity. Besides,
it was not convenient that the University of
Paris should be allowed the entire direction of
the trial. It was well that the University should
be made use of; but Cauchon relied on the In-
quisition to carry out his and Bedford's plan.
Cauchon must be the principal agent and ju^ge,
and he felt, with Bedford, that they had a freer
hand if the trial were to be at Rouen ; therefore
Rouen was decided on as the place of trial and
punishment. Rouen, also, being in the midst of
the English possessions, was perfectly safe from
attack, should it occur to any of Joan of Arc's
countrymen to attempt a rescue.

At the close of December Joan of Arc was
taken across the river Somme, in a boat, to
Saint Valery, and thence, strongly guarded, and
placed on horseback, she was led along the Nor-
mSndy coast by Eure and Dieppe to the place
of her martyrdom. On arriving at Rouen it
was seriously debated by some of her captors
whether or not she should be at once put to
death. They suggested her being sewn into
a sack and thrown into the river ! The reason
these people gave for summarily disposing of
Joan of Arc without form or trial was that, as
long as she lived, there was no security for
the English in France. As has already been
noticed, those who commanded and sided with
the English were desirous that Joan of Arc
should be first branded as a witch and a

142 yOAN OF ARC.

sorceress, both by the doctors of the Church
and by the State, before being put to death.

Arrived at Rouen, Joan of Arc was immured
in the old fortress built by Philip Augustus,
One tower alone remains of the seven massive
round towers which surrounded the circular
castle. Her jailers had the barbarity to place
their prisoner in an iron cage, in which she
was fastened with iron rings and chains, one
at the neck, another at the hands, and a third
confining the feet. Joan was thus caged as if
she were a wild animal until her trial com-
menced. After that, she was chained to a
miserable truckle bed.

A chronicler of that time, named Macy,
tells the following story of an incident which, for
the sake of English manhood, one trusts is un-
true. Among others who went to see Joan
of Arc in her prison came one day the Earl
of Warwick, with Lord Stafford and Ligny —
Joan's former jailer. The latter told her in a
jeering way that he had come to buy her back
from the English, provided she promised never
again to make war against them.

'You are mocking me,' said Joan of Arc.
' For I know that you have not the power to
do that, neither the will.' And she added, ' I
know well that these English will kill me,
thinking that by doing so they will reconquer
the kingdom of France ; but even if there were
one hundred thousand Godons more in France
than there are now, they will never again con-
quer the kingdom ! '

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 143

On hearing these words Stafford drew his
dagger, and would have struck her had not
Warwick prevented the cowardly act.

Cauchon formed his tribunal of the follow-
ing :—

1. John Graverent,. a Dominican priest, D.D.,
Grand Inquisitor of France. It was he who
appointed John Lemaitre as judge in the trial
of the Maid. The following July this Grave-
rent preached a sermon in Paris, in which he
glorified the death of Joan of Arc.

2. John Lemaitre, who represented the In-
quisition on the trial. He was a Dominican
prior. He appears to have been a feeble-
minded creature, and a mere tool of Cauchon
and Graverent.

3. Martin Bellarme, D.D., another Domini-
can, and also a member of the Inquisition.

4. John d'Estivet, surnamed ' Bdnddicit6,'
canon of Beauvais and Bayeux, was another of
Cauchon's creatures. He acted the part of
Proaweur-Ghidral during the trial. D'Estivet
was a gross and cruel ecclesiastic, and it is
somewhat satisfactory to know his end. He
was found dead in a muddy ditch soon after
Joan of Arc's death. As M. Fabre justly says,
' He perished in his native element.'

5. John de la Fontaine, M.A. He was
Conseille d' Instruction during the trial. In the
course of it he was threatened by Cauchon
for having given some friendly advice to the
prisoner, and escaped from Rouen before the
conclusion of the trial.

144 JOAN OF ARC.

6, 7, 8. William Manchon, William Colles,
and Nicolas Taquel, all three recorders. They
belonged to the Church. It is to Manchon
that we are indebted for a summary of the
most interesting account of the trial. We shall
find that at the time of Joan's execution this
man was horrified at the part he had taken
in it. He confesses his horror at having re-
ceived money for his infamy, but instead of
casting his blood-money at the feet of Cauchon,
and hanging himself like another Judas, he some-
what naively informs us that he laid it out in
the purchase of a breviary in order to pray for
the soul of the martyr.

9. Massieu, another priest, who acted as the
sherifFs officer. He appears to have had feel-
ings of humanity, and attended Joan to the end.

10. Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of The-
rouenne and the Chancellor of France to King
Henry VI. This bishop was the go-between of
Cauchon and Winchester throughout the trial ;
but he only appears to have taken part in these
occasions during the examinations. It was he
who was made Archbishop of Rouen, which
post Cauchon had hoped to gain ; and it was
for this archbishopric that Cauchon had taken
the presiding post during the trial.

11. John de Mailly, Bishop of Noyon ; he
was another staunch auxiliary of Cauchon. In
the year 1456, at the trial for the rehabilitation
of Joan of Arc's memory, Mailly signed his name
among those who condemned the deed he had
helped to carry out.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 145

12. Zanon de Castiglione, Bishop of Lisieux.
One of the reasons that this man gave for
condemning Joan of Arc to the stake was that
she was born in too low a rank of Hfe to have
been inspired by God. This decision makes one
wonder so aristocratic a prelate could demean
himself by belonging to a religion which owed
its origin to One who had followed the trade
of a carpenter.

13. Philibert de Montjeu, Bishop of Cou-
tances.

14. John de Saint Av6t, Bishop of Av-
ranches. The latter was the only one of the
above Bishops, Dominicans, and members of
the French Church who gave his vote against
the condemnation of Joan of Arc, although the
trial minutes have not recorded the fact.

Besides the above French prelates, were : —

15. John Beaupere, M.A. and D.D., formerly
a rector of the University of Paris, also a
canon of Besan9on. It was he who, with the
following five representatives of the University
of Paris, took the most prominent part in the
cross-questioning of the prisoner.

16. Thomas de Courcelles, a canon of
Amiens, of Thdrouenne, and of Laon. This
person was employed to read the articles of
accusation to the prisoner, and was in favour
of employing torture to make Joan confess
what was required of her by her prosecutors.
He was considered one of the shining lights of
the University of Paris. He died in 1469,
and until the Revolution an engraved slab, on

K

146 JOAN OF ARC.

which his virtues and learning were recorded,
covered his remains.

17. Gerard Feuillet. He was sent to Paris
during the trial in order to lay the twelve ar-
ticles of accusation before the University, and did
not take part in the latter portion of the trial.

18. Nicolas Midi, D.D., a celebrated preacher.
He is supposed to have been the author of the
twelve articles ; and he it was who preached a
sermon at the time of the execution of Joan of
Arc. Attacked soon after by leprosy, he suffi-
ciently recovered to see Charles VH. enter
Paris ; and he had the audacity to send the
King an address of felicitation in the name of
the faculties of the University by whose instru-
mentality Joan of Arc had been executed.

19. Peter Morice, a doctor of the University
and a canon of Rouen. He was one of the most
eager to bring Joan to the stake.

20. James de Touraine, also a doctor of the
University, was violently hostile to Joan of Arc.

The above six doctors, with Cauchon, were
those who had most to do with the proceed-
ings of the trial, and those whose duty it was
principally to question the prisoner.

21. Nicolas Loiseleur, M.A., a canon of
Rouen ; he was the most abject of all the gang
of priests and doctors who formed part of this
infamous tribunal. It was Loiseleur who, in the
disguise of a layman, attempted to worm secrets
from Joan, pretending to be her friend and sym-
pathiser. When he found he gained nothing
by the subterfuge, he resumed his clerical garb.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 147

and succeeded in getting, under the promise of
secrecy from his order, a confession from the
prisoner. He also introduced spies into the
prison who took notes of Joan's words. When
the idea was mooted of putting Joan of Arc to
the torture, Loiseleur was one of the most urgent
for it to be applied. However, on the day of
the execution this man, who, strange as it may
seem, appears to have had some kind of con-
science, or at least to have been able to feel
remorse for the base part he had played in
the trial of the Maid, implored Joan of Arc's
forgiveness. He, however, after the execution,
helped Cauchon to spread calumnies regarding
their victim. This infamous scoundrel died sud-
denly at Basle.

22. Raoul Roussel de Vernon, D.C.L., and
the canon treasurer of the Cathedral of Rouen.
He acted throughout the trial as reporter. In
1443 Roussel became Archbishop of Rouen.

23. Robert Barbier, also a D.C. L., and canon
of Rouen Cathedral.

24. Nicolas Coppequesne, also a canon of
Rouen Cathedral.

25. Nicolas de Venderes, a canon of Rouen,
and Cauchon's chaplain.

26. John Alessee, also a canon of Rouen.
This Alessde was greatly moved at the heroine's
death, and exclaimed, ' I pray to God my soul
may one day be where hers is now.'

27. Raoul Auguy, another canon.

28. William de Baubribosc, also a canon of
Rouen.

148 JOAN OF ARC.

29. John Brullot, another canon and pre-
centor of Rouen.

30. John Basset, another canon and a M.A.

31. John Brullot, another canon. Besides
these were seventeen others, named Cava],
Columbel, Cormeilles, Crotoy, Duchemin, Dube-
sert, Garin, Gastinel, Ledoux, Leroy, Maguerie,
Manzier, Morel, Morellet, Pinchon, Saulx, and
Pasquier de Vaux, who became Bishop of
Meaux, Evreux, and Lisieux. In all, nine-and-
twenty canons of Rouen.

After these came a list of mitred abbots,
priors, and heads of religious houses : Peter
de Crique, Prior of Sigy ; William Lebourg,
Prior of the College of Saint L6 of Rouen ;
Peter Migiet, Prior of Longueville.

After these priors came eleven abbots :
Durement, Abbot of Fdcamp, later Bishop of
Coutances ; Benel, Abbot of Courcelles ; De
Conti, Abbot of Sainte Catherine ; Dacier,
Abbot of Saint Corneille of Compiegne ; Frique,
Abbot of Bee ; Jolivet, Abbot of Saint Michael's
Mount in Normandy ; Labb^, Abbot of Saint
George de Bocherville ; Leroux, Abbot of
Jumieges ; Du Masle, Abbot of Saint Ouen ;
Moret, Abbot of Prdaux ; and Theroude, Abbot
of Mortemer.

Besides these there were many doctors and
assessors from the University of Paris ; among
the latter lot appears the name of an English
priest, William Haiton, a secretary of Henry VI.
He and William Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich,
Privy Seal to the English King, are the only

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 149

two names belonging to the English clergy
who took part in the trial. The Cardinal of
Winchester never once appeared during the
proceedings, although he was, together with
Cauchon, the prime mover in the business. To
complete the list of the other French clergy —
French only by birth and nationality indeed —
must be added the names of Chatillon, Arch-
deacon of Evreux ; Erard, Canon of Langres,
Laon, and Beauvais ; Martin Ladvenu, a Domi-
nican priest, one of the few who showed some
humanity to the prisoner. It was Ladvenu who
heard her confession on the day of her exe-
cution, and who after her death testified to
her saintliness. Isambard de la Pierre, also a
Dominican. Although he voted for her death,
de la Pierre showed signs of pity and compas-
sion for his victim, and assisted her at her last
moments. Testimony to her pure character was
given by him in the time of her rehabilitation.
Besides these were Emenyart, Fiexvet, Guer-
don, Le Fevre, Delachambre, and Tiphanie, all of
whom, with the exception of the last two, who
were doctors of medicine, were members of the
University. As we have already stated, out
of this vast crowd of ecclesiastics and a few
laymen, only two Englishmen took part in the
trial. But the immediate guard of the prisoner
was composed of English soldiers — namely, of
the following : John Gris, an English knight,
one of Henry's bodyguard, who was in personal
attendance on Joan of Arc ; also John Berwoit
(.?) and William Talbot, subordinator to Gris.

150 JOAN OF ARC.

These men commanded a set of soldiers called
houspilleurs, placed in the cell of the prisoner
day and night. According to J. Bellow's pocket
dictionary, the term houspilleur is derived from
the old French term houspiller — Ang. 'to worry.'
And these fellows certainly carried out that
meaning of the word.

If anything is needed to prove what an
important case the English and those allied to
them in France considered that of Joan of Arc,
the great number of prelates and doctors as-
sembled to judge her is sufficient to show.
The doctors who had been summoned to attend
the trial, and who had come to Rouen from
Paris, were well paid by Winchester. Some of
the receipts are still in existence. The Inquisi-
tion and Cauchon also received pay from the
English Government.

Besides money, as we have said, Cauchon
expected also to receive the Archbishopric of
Rouen for his zeal in bringing Joan of Arc to
the stake. Cupidity, lust of place and power,
and fear of the enemies of the French were the
principal motives which influenced these men,
whose names should for ever be execrated.
In truth, a vulgar greed induced them to de-
stroy one of the noblest creatures that had
ever honoured humanity.

The proces-verbal and the minutes of the
trial were written in Latin, and translated by
Thomas de Courcelles ; only a portion of the
original translation has been preserved. There
were three reporters who took notes during the

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 151

trial — Manchon, Colles, and Taquel. The notes
in Latin, written as the trial proceeded, were
collected in the evenings, and translated into
French by Manchon.

One difficult question arises — namely, are
these notes to be relied on ? Manchon appears
to have been honest in his writing, but Cauchon
was not to be trifled with in what he wished
noted, as the following instance will show. A
sheriffs officer, named Massieu, was overheard
to say that Joan of Arc had done nothing
worthy of the death sentence. It was repeated
to Cauchon, who threatened to have Massieu
drowned. When Isambert de la Pierre advised
Joan to submit herself to the Council then hold-
ing meetings at Bale, to which she assented,
Cauchon shouted out, ' In the devil's name hold
your peace ! ' On being asked by Manchon
whether the prisoner's wish to submit her case
to the Council at Bale should be placed on the
minutes of the trial, Cauchon roughly refused.
Joan of Arc overhearing this, said, ' You write
down what is against my interest, but not what
is in my favour.' But we think the truth comes
out, on the whole, pretty clearly ; and we have in
the answers of Joan to her judges, however much
these answers may have been altered to suit
Cauchon's views and ultimate object, a splendid
proof of her presence of mind and courage.
This she maintained day after day in the face
of that crowd of enemies who left no stone
unturned, no subtlety of law or superstition
disused, to bring a charge of guilt against her.

152 JOAN OF ARC.

No victory of arms that Joan of Arc might
have accomplished, had her career continued
one bright and unclouded success, could have
shown in a grander way the greatness of her
character than her answers and her bearing
during the entire course of her examinations
before her implacable enemies, her judicial
murderers.

After holding some preliminary and private
meetings, in which Cauchon, with some of the
prelates, drew up a series of articles of indict-
ment against the prisoner, the first public sitting
of the tribunal took place in the chapel of
the castle, in the same building in which Joan
was imprisoned.

This was on the 21st of February, 1431.
As we have said, from the day of her arrival in
Rouen, at the end of December of the previous
year, till this 21st day of February, Joan had
been kept in an iron cage — a martyrdom of
fifty days' daily and nightly torture. During the
trial her confinement was less barbarous, but
she was kept chained to a wooden bed, and
the only wonder is that she did not succumb
to this barbarous imprisonment. We shall see
that she fell seriously ill, and the English at
one time feared she would die a natural death,
and defeat their object of having her exposed
and destroyed as a witch and a heretic.

On the day before the meeting of the tri-
bunal, Cauchon sent summonses for all the
judges to attend. Joan of Arc had meanwhile
made two demands, both of which were re-

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 153

fused. One was, that an equal number of
clergy belonging to the French party should
form an equal number in the tribunal to those
of the English faction. The other demand
was that she should be allowed to hear Mass
before appearing before the tribunal.

At eight in the morning of Wednesday, the
2 1 St of February, Cauchon took his seat as
presiding judge for the trial about to com-
mence. Beneath him were ranged forty-three
assessors — there were ninety-five assessors in
all who took part in the trial. On the public
days their numbers varied from between forty
to sixty.

The prisoner was led into the chapel by
the priest Massieu. Cauchon opened the pro-
ceedings with the following harangue : —

'This woman,' he said, pointing to Joan of
Arc, ' this woman has been seized and ap-
prehended some time back, in the territory of
our diocese of Beauvais. Numerous acts in-
jurious to the orthodox faith have been com-
mitted by her, not merely in our diocese, but
in many other regions. The public voice which
accuses her of such crimes has become known
throughout Christendom, and quite recently the
high and very Christian Prince, our lord the
King, has delivered her up and given her in
our custody in order that a trial in the cause of
religion shall be made, as it seemeth right and
proper. For as much in the eyes of public
opinion, and owing to certain matters which
have come to our knowledge' — (Cauchon here

1 54 JOAN OF ARC.

refers to the information that he sought to
obtain from Domremy : as nothing could be
learnt there but what redounded to Joan of
Arc's credit, no further use was made of the in-
formation by the Bishop) — ' we have, with the
assistance of learned doctors in religious and
civil law, called you together in order to
examine the said Joan, in order that she be
examined on matters relating to faith. There-
fore,' he continued, 'we desire in this trial that
you fill the duty of your office for the preserva-
tion and exaltation of the Catholic faith ; and,
with the Divine assistance of our Lord, we call
upon you to expedite these proceedings for the
welfare of your consciences, that you speak the
plain and honest truth, without subterfuge or
concealment, on all questions that will be made
you touching the faith. And in the first place
we call upon you to take the oath in the form
prescribed. Swear, the hands placed on the
Gospels, that you will answer the truth in the
questions that will be asked you.'

The latter words the Bishop had addressed
to Joan ; who answered that she knew not on
what Cauchon would question her. ' Perhaps,
she said, ' you will ask me things about which
I cannot answer you.'

'Will you swear,' said Cauchon, 'to tell the
truth respecting the things which will be asked
you concerning the faith, and of which you are
cognisant ? '

' Of all things regarding my family, and what
things I have done since coming into France, I

IMPRIS ONMENT A ND TRIAL. i s s

will gladly answer ; but, as regards the revelation
which I have received from God, I have never
revealed to any one, except to Charles my King,
and I will never reveal these things, even if
my head were to be cut off, because my voices
have ordered me not to confide these things to
any one save the King. But,' she continued, 'in
eight days' time I shall know whether or not I
may be allowed to tell you about them.'

Cauchon then repeated his question to the
prisoner, namely, whether she would answer any
questions put to her regarding matters of faith,
and the Gospels were placed before her. The
prisoner, kneeling, laid her hands upon them,
and swore to speak the truth in what was asked
her as regarded matters of faith.

' What is your name ? ' asked Cauchon.

J. — ' In my home I was called Jeannette.
Since I came to France I was called Joan. I
have no surname.'

C. — ' Where were you born ? '

J. — ' At Domremy, near Greux. The prin-
cipal church is at Greux.'

C. — ' What are your parents' names } '

J. — ' My father's name is James d'Arc ; my
mother's, Isabella.'

C. — ' Where were you baptized } '

J. — 'At Domremy.'

Cauchon then asked her the names of her
god - parents, who baptized her, her age (she
was about nineteen), and what her education
amounted to.

' I have learnt,' Joan said, in answer to the

1 56 JOAN OF ARC.

last question, ' from my mother the Paternoster,
the Ave Maria, and the BeHef. All that I know
has been tanght me by my mother.'

Cauchon then called upon her to repeat the
Lord's Prayer.

In trials for heresy the prisoners had to
repeat this prayer before the judges. At the
commencement of Joan of Arc's trial the crime
of magic was brought against her, but as Cau-
chon completely failed to find any evidence for
such a charge against his prisoner, he altered
the charge of magic into one of heresy. It
was probably supposed that a heretic would
be unable to repeat the prayer and the creed,
being under diabolic influence.

Joan of Arc then asked whether she might
make her confession before the tribunal. Cau-
chon refused this request, but told her that
he would send some one to whom she might
confess. He then warned her that if she were
to leave her prison she would be condemned
as a heretic. Considering the way she was
chained to her cell, it sounds strange that
Cauchon should fear her flight.

'I have never,' the Maid said, 'given my'
promise not to attempt to escape if I can.'

' Have you anything to complain about ? '
asked the Bishop ; and Joan then said how
cruelly she was fastened by chains round her
body and her feet. Probably, had she then pro-
mised not to escape from prison, this severity
would have been relaxed, but Joan of Arc
had not the spirit to stoop to her persecutors ;

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 157

she would not give her word not to get free if
she could. ' The hope of escape is allowed to
every prisoner,' she bravely said.

At the close of the sitting, John Gris, the
English knight who had the chief charge over
the prisoner, with the two soldiers Berwoit
and Talbot, were called, and took an oath not
to allow the prisoner to see any one without
Cauchon's permission, and to strictly guard the
prisoner. And with that the first day's trial
ended.

Manchon, in his minutes on the day's pro-
ceedings, says that shouts and interruptions
interfered with the reporters and their notes,
and that Joan of Arc was repeatedly interrupted.
Cauchon had placed some of his clerks behind
the tapestry in the depth of a window of the
chapel, whose duty it was to make a garbled
copy of Joan of Arc's answers to suit the Bishop.

Possibly finding the chapel of the castle
too small for the number of people present at
the trial, the next meeting of the judges was
held in a different place, more suitable — namely,
in the great hall of the castle. That second
day's trial took place on the 22 nd of February.
The tribunal consisted of Cauchon and forty-
seven assessors.

Cauchon commenced the proceedings by in-
troducing John Lemaitre, vicar of the Inquisi-
tion, to the judges, after which Joan was
brought into the hall — a splendid chamber used
on happier occasions for festivities and Court
pageants.

1 58 JOAN OF ARC.

Cauchon again commanded the prisoner to
take the oath, as on the first day's trial. She
said that she had already once sworn to speak
nothing but the truth, and that that should
suffice. Cauchon still insisted, and again Joan
replied that as far as any question was put to
her regarding faith and religion she had pro-
mised to answer, but that she could not promise
more, and Cauchon failed to get anything more
from her.

The Bishop then applied to one of the doc-
tors of theology to examine and cross-question
the prisoner. This man's name was Beaupere.

B. — ■' In the first place, Joan, I will exhort
you to tell the truth, as you have sworn to do,
on all that I may have to ask you.'

J. — 'You may ask me questions on which
I shall be able to answer you, and on others
about which I cannot. If you were well in-
formed about me you should wish me out of
your power. All that I have done has been
the work of revelation.'

B. — ' How old were you when you left your
home ?'

J. — ' I do not exactly know.'

B. — ' Did you learn any trade at home ? '

J. — ' Yes, to sew and to spin, and for that
I am not afraid to be matched by any woman
in Rouen.'

B. — ' Did you not once leave your father's
house before you left it altogether ? '

J. — ' We left for fear of the Burgundians,
and I once left my father's house and went to

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 159

Neufchateau in Lorraine, to visit a woman
named La Rousse, where I remained for fifteen
days. '

B. — ' What was your occupation when at
home ? '

J. — 'When I was with my father I looked
after the household affairs, and I went but sel-
dom with the sheep and cattle to the fields.'

B. — ' Did you make your confession every
year ? '

J. — ' Yes, to my curate, and when he was
prevented hearing it, to another priest, with my
curate's permission. I think on two or three
occasions I have confessed to mendicant friars.
That happened at Neufchateau. I took the
Communion at Easter.'

B. — ' Have you received the Eucharist at
other festivals besides that of Easter ? '

Joan of Arc said that what she had already
told regarding this question was sufficient.

' Passes outre ' is the term she used, not an
easy one to translate. Perhaps 'that will suffice'
is like it.

Beaupere now began questioning Joan of
Arc regarding 'her voices,' and one can ima-
gine how eagerly this portion of the prisoner's
examination must have been listened to by all
present.

'When did you first hear the voices?' asked
Beaupere.

'I was thirteen,' answered Joan, 'when I
first heard a voice coming from God to help
me to live well. That first time I was much

i6o JOAN OF ARC.

alarmed. The voice came to me about mid-day;
it was in the summer, and I was in my father's
garden.'

' Had you been fasting ? ' asked Beaupere.

J. — ' Yes, I had been fasting.'

B. — 'Had you fasted on the day before?'

J.— 'No, I had not.'

B. — ' From what direction did the voices
come ? '

J. — ' I heard the voice coming from my right
— from towards the church.'

B. — ' Was the voice accompanied with a
bright light?'

J. — ' Seldom did I hear it without seeing a
bright light. The light came from the same
side as did the voice, and it was generally very
brilliant. When I came into France I often
heard the voices very loud.'

B. — -^ How could you see the light when you
say it was at the side ? '

To this question Joan gave no direct answer,
but she said that when she was in a wood she
would hear the voices coming towards her.

'What,' next asked Beaupere, 'what did
you think this voice which manifested itself to
you sounded like ? '

J. — ' It seemed to me a very noble voice,
and I think it was sent to me by God. When
I heard it for the third time I recognised it as
being the voice of an angel.'

B. — ' Could you understand it ? '

J. — 'It was always quite clear, and I could
easily understand it'

TOUR COUDRAY-CHINON.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. i6i

B. — ' What advice did it give you regarding
the salvation of your soul ? '

J. — ' It told me to conduct myself well, and
to attend the services of the Church regularly ;
and it told me that it was necessary that I
should go to France.'

B. — ' In what manner of form did the voice
appear ? '

J- — 'As to that I will give you no answer.'

B. — ' Did that voice solicit you often ? '

J. — ' It said to me two or three times a
week, " Leave your village and go to France." '

B. — ' Did your father know of your depar-
ture ? '

J. — ' He knew nothing about it. The
voice said, "Go to France," so I could not
remain at home any longer.'

B. — ' What else did it say to you ? '

J. — ' It told me that I should raise the siege
of Orleans.'

B.— ' Was that all ? '

J. — ' The same voice told me to go to Vau-
couleurs, to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of
that place, and that he would give me soldiers
to accompany me on my journey ; and I
answered it, that I was a poor girl who did
not know how to ride, neither how to fight.'

B. — ' What did you do then 1 '

J. — ' I went to my uncle, and told him that
I wished to remain with him for some time,
and I lived with him eight days. I then told
him that I must go to Vaucouleurs, and he took
me there. When I arrived there I recognised

i62 JOAN OF ARC.

Robert de Baudricourt, although it was the
first time that I saw him.'

B. — 'How, then, did you recognise him?'

J. — ' I knew him through my voices. They
said to me, "This is the man," and I said to
him, " I must go to France." Twice he re-
fused to Hsten to me. The third time he re-
ceived me. The voices had told me this would
happen.'

B. — ' Had you not some business with the
Duke of Lorraine ? '

J. — 'The Duke ordered that I should be
brought to him. I went and said to him, " I
must go to France." The Duke asked me
how he should recover his health. I told him
I knew nothing about that.'

B. — ' Did you speak much to him about your
journey ? '

J. — ' I told him very little about it. But I
asked him to allow his son, with some soldiers,
to go to France with me, and that I should
pray God to cure him. I had gone to him with
a safe conduct. After leaving him I returned
to Vaucouleurs.'

B. — ' How were you dressed when you
left Vaucouleurs ? '

J. — 'When I left Vaucouleurs I wore a
man's dress. I had on a sword which Robert
de Baudricourt had given me, without any
other arms. I was accompanied by a knight, a
squire, and four servants. We went to the
town of Saint Urban, and I passed that night
in the abbey. On the way, we passed through

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 163

the town of Auxerre, where I attended mass in
the principal church. At that time I heard my
voices often, with that one of which I have al-
ready spoken.'

B. — ' Tell me, now, by whose advice did you
come to wear the dress of a man ? '

Joan of Arc refused to answer, in spite of
being repeatedly told to do so.

B. — ' What did Baudricourt say to you when
you left ? '

J. — ' He made them who went with me
promise to take charge of me, and as I left he
said, "Go, and let come what may!"' i^Ad-
vienne que pourra /)

B. — ' What do you know regarding the
Duke of Orleans, now a prisoner in England } '

J. — ' I know that God protects the Duke
of Orleans, and I have had more revelations
about the Duke than about any other person
in the world, with the exception of the King.'

She was now again asked as to who it was
who had advised her to wear male attire. She
said it was necessary that she should dress in
that manner.

' Did your voice tell you so ? ' was asked her.

' I believe my voice gave me good advice,'
she answered.

B. — ' What did you do on arriving at
Orleans?'

J. — ' I sent a letter to the English before
Orleans. In it I told them to depart ; a copy
of this letter has been read to me here in
Rouen. There are two or three sentences in

i64 JOAN OF ARC.

that copy which were not in my letter. For
instance, " Give back to the Maiden " should
read, "Give back to the King." Also these
words, "Troop for troop" and "Commander-in-
chief," which were not in my letters.'

In this Joan of Arc was mistaken, M.
Fabre points out in his Life of the Maid of
Orleans, the text being the same both in the
original and in the copy of the letter.

B. — 'When at Chinon, could you see as
often as you wished him you call your King?'

J. — ' I used to go whenever I wished to
see my King. When I arrived at the village
of Sainte Catherine de Fierbois, I sent a
messenger to Chinon to the King. W^e ar-
rived about mid-day at Chinon, and lodged at
an inn. After dinner I went to see the King
at the castle.'

Either here Joan of Arc, or the reporter,
which is more likely, makes a slip, as she did
not see Charles till two days after her arrival
at Chinon.

B. — ' Who pointed out the King to you ? '

J. — ' When I entered the chamber I re-
cognised the King from among all the others,
my voices having revealed him to me. I told
the King that I wished to go and make war
on the English.'

B. — ' When your voices revealed your King
to you, were they accompanied by any light ? '

Joan made no answer.

B. — ' Did you see any angel above the
figure of the King ? '

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 165

'Spare me such questions,' pleaded Joan;
but the Inquisitor was not to be so easily
put off, and repeated the question again and
again, until Joan said that the King had also
seen visions and heard revelations.

' What were these revelations ? ' asked the
priest.

This Joan refused to answer, and told
Beaupere that he might, if he liked, send to
Charles and ask him.

' Did you expect the King to see you .'' '
then asked the priest.

Her answer was that the voice had promised
her that the King would soon see her after
her arrival.

'And why,' asked Beaupere, 'did he
receive you ? '

'Those on my side,' said Joan, 'knew well
that I was sent by God; they have known
and acknowledged that voice.'

' Who ? ' asked Beaupere.

'The King and others,' answered Joan, 'have
heard the voices coming to me. Charles of
Bourbon also, and two or three others.'

(The Charles of Bourbon was the Count
of Clermont.)

' Did you often hear that voice ? ' asked
the priest.

'Not a day passes that I do not hear it,'
Joan replied.

'What do you ask of it?' inquired Beaupere.

'I have never,' answered Joan, 'asked for
any recompense, except the salvation of my soul.'

i66 JOAN OF ARC.

' Did the voice always encourage you to
follow the army ? '

' The voice told me to remain at Saint
Denis. I wished to remain, but against my
will the knights obliged me to leave. I would
have remained had I had my free-will.'

'When were you wounded?' asked Beaupere.

'I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'in the
moat before Paris, having gone there from
Saint Denis. At the end of five days I re-
covered.'

' What did you attempt to do against
Paris ? '

Joan answered that she had made one
skirmish {escarmoviche) in front of Paris.

' Was it on a feast day ? ' asked the priest.

' It was,' replied Joan. And on being
asked if she considered it right to make an
attack on such a day, she refused to answer.

It is plain that the gist of those questions
made by Beaupere was to try and make Joan
of Arc avow that her voices had given her
evil counsel. On the following day the same
tactics were pursued.

The third meeting of the tribunal was
held on the 24th of February, in the same
chamber. Sixty-two assessors were present.
Again Cauchon commenced by admonishing
Joan to tell the truth on all subjects asked
her, and again she protested that as far as her
revelations were concerned she could give no
answers. On Cauchon insisting, she said, 'Take
care what you, who are my judge, undertake,

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 167

for you take a terrible responsibility on your-
self, and you presume too far. It is enough,'
she added, 'that I have already twice taken
the oath.'

Upon her saying this, Cauchon lost all
control, and he stormed and threatened her
with instant condemnation if she refused to
take the oath.

' All the clergy in Paris and Rouen could
not condemn me,' was the proud answer, 'if
they had not the right to do so.' But, as on
the previous occasions, she said she would
willingly answer all questions relating to her
deeds since leaving her home, but that it
would take many days for her to tell them
all. Wearied with the persistence and threats
of her arch-tormentor, Cauchon, Joan said that
she had been sent by God and wished to
return to God. ' I have nothing more to do
here,' she added.

Beaupere was again ordered to cross-examine
the prisoner.

He began by asking her when she had
last eaten.

' Not since yesterday at mid-day,' she said.
(It was then Lent.)

Beaupere then began again to question her
reo-arding the voice. When had she last heard
it?

'On the previous day,' Joan said, 'and also
on that day too.'

' At what o'clock of the day before ? '

Thrice she had heard the voice in the

i68 JOAN OF ARC.

morning, and once at the hour of Vespers,

and again when the Ave Maria was being

sung.

' What were you doing,' asked Beaupere,

' when the voices called you ? '

'I was sleeping,' answered Joan, 'and the

voice awoke me.'

' Did it awake you by touching your arm ? '

' The voice awoke me without its touching me.'

' Was it in your room ? '

' Not that I know, but it was in the castle.'

'Did you acknowledge it by kneeling?'

' I acknowledged its presence by sitting up

and clasping my hands. I had begged for its

help.'

' And what did it say to you ? '

' It told me to answer boldly.'

' Tell us more clearly what it said to you.'

'I asked its advice in what I should answer,

and bade it ask the Saviour for counsel. And

the voice said, "Answer boldly; God will help

J) »

you.

'Had it said anything to you before you
interrupted it ? '

' Some words it had said which I did not
clearly comprehend ; but when fully awake I
understood it to tell me to answer boldly.'
Then, emboldened as it seemed by the recollec-
tion of that voice, she turned to Cauchon and
exclaimed, ' You, Bishop, you tell me that you
are my judge — have a care how you act, for
in truth I am sent by God, and your position
is one of great peril.'

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 169

Then Beaupere broke in again, and asked
Joan of Arc if the voice had ever altered its
advice, and whether it had told Joan not to
answer all the questions that would be put to her.

'I cannot answer you about that,' said Joan.
' I have revelations of matters concerning the
King which I shall not reveal.'

The Maid then asked whether she might
wait for fifteen days, in order that, by that
time, she might know whether she might, or
might not, answer questions relating to this point.

The priest then asked whether she knew
that the voice came from God.

'Yes,' she answered, 'and by this order —
that,' she continued, ' I believe as firmly as I
believe the Christian religion, and that God
has saved us from the pains of hell.'

She was then asked if the voice was that
of a male or of a female.

'It is a voice sent by God,' she only
deigned to say to this.

Joan again asked for an interval of fifteen
days, in order that she might better be able
in that time to know how much she might
reveal to her judges relating to her voices.

On being asked whether she believed the
Almighty would be displeased at her telling
the whole truth, she said that she had been
ordered by the voices to reveal certain things
to the King, and not to her judges ; that her
voices had told her that very night many things
for the good of the King which he alone was
to know.

I70 JOAN OF ARC.

But, asked Beaupere, could she not prevail
on the voices to visit the King ?

' I know not if the voices would consent,'
she answered.

' But why,' then asked Beaupere, ' does
the voice not speak to the King now, as it
did formerly, when you were with him ? '

' I know not if it be the wish of God,' Joan
answered : ' without the grace of God I should
be able to do nothing.'

This remark, most innocent to our compre-
hension, was afterwards made use of as a weapon
to accuse the prisoner of the charge of heresy.

Later on in the day Beaupere asked Joan
if the voice had form and features. This the
prisoner refused to answer.

'There is a saying among children,' she
said, ' that one is sometimes hanged for speak-
ing the truth.'

On being asked by Beaupere if she was
sure of being in a state of grace — a question to
which he had carefully led up, and whereby
Cauchon hoped to entrap her into a state-
ment which might be used in the accusation
of heresy he was now framing against Joan
of Arc — her answer even disarmed the Bishop.

' If I am not, may God place me in it ; if I
am already, may He keep me in it.'

When that test question had been put to
the prisoner, one of the judges, guessing the
object of its being made, expostulated, to
Cauchon's rage — who roughly bade him hold
his peace.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 171

To that triumphant reply Joan of Arc added
these words : ' If I am not in God's grace I
should be the most unhappy being in the
world, and I do not think, were I living in sin,
that my voices would come to me. Would,'
she cried, ' that every one could hear them as
well as I do myself ! '

Beaupere then asked her about her child-
hood, and when she had first heard the voices.
Asked if there were many people at Dom-
remy in favour of the Burgundians, she said
she only knew of one individual. Then came
a string of questions about the fairy-well, the
haunted oak-tree. All these questions Joan fully
answered. She had never, she said, seen a
fairy, nor had she heard the prophecy about
the oak wood from which a maid was to come
and deliver France. When asked If she would
leave off wearing man's clothes, she said she
would not, as It was the will of Heaven for
her to wear them.

The fourth day of the trial was the 27th
of February. Fifty-three judges were present.
The usual attempt to make Joan take the oath
was made to the prisoner by Cauchon, and she
was again cross-examined by Beaupere. Again
questioned as to her voices, she said that with-
out their permission she could not say what
they said to her relating to the King.

Asked if the voices came to her direct from
God, or through some Intermediary channel, she
answered, 'The voices are those of Saint Cathe-
rine and Saint Margaret; they wear beautiful

172 JOAN OF ARC.

crowns — of this I may speak, for they allow
me to do so.' If, she added, her words were
doubted, they might send to Poitiers, where she
had already been questioned on the same sub-
ject.

'How do you distinguish one from the
other?' aslced Beaupere.

' By the manner in which they salute me,'
Joan answered.

' How long have they been in communica-
tion with you ? '

' I have been under their protection seven
years,' was the answer.

Joan had referred to the succour which she
had received from Saint Michel. On being
asked which of these saints was the first to
appear to her, she said it was the last named.
She had seen him, she said, as clearly as she
saw Beaupere, and that he was not by himself,
but in a company of angels. When he left her
she felt miserable, and longed to have been
taken with the flight of angels.

When Beaupere asked her if it was her own
idea to come into France, Joan replied in the
affirmative, and also that she would sooner have
been torn to pieces by horses than have come
without the will of God.

'Does He,' asked the priest, 'tell you not
to wear the man's dress ? and had not Bau-
dricourt,' he added, 'wished she should dress as
a man ? '

She said it was not by man's but by God's
orders that she wore the dress of a man.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 173

The questions again turned upon the vision
and the voice.

Had an angel appeared above the head of
the King at Chinon ?

She answered that when she entered the
King's presence, three hundred soldiers stood
in the hall, and fifty torches burnt in the great
hall of the castle, and that without counting
the spiritual light within.

She was then asked respecting her exami-
nation before the clergy at Poitiers.

'They believed,' Joan answered, 'that there
was nothing in me against matters of religion.'

Then Beaupere asked the prisoner if she
had visited Sainte Catherine de Fierbois.

'Yes,' she answered; 'I heard mass there
twice in one day, on my way to Chinon.'

' How did you communicate your message
to the King ? '

' I sent a letter asking him if I might be
allowed to see him. That I had come one
hundred and fifty miles to bring him assistance,
and that I had much to do for him. I think,'
she added, ' that I also said I should know
him amongst all those who might be present.'

' Did you then wear a sword ? ' asked
Beaupere.

' I had one that I had taken at Vaucouleurs.'

' Had you not another one as well .'' '

' Yes ; I had sent to the church of Fierbois,
either from Troyes or Chinon, for a sword
from the back of the altar of Sainte Catherine.
It was found, much rusted.'

174 JOAN OF ARC.

' How did you know there was a sword
there ? '

' Through my voices. I asked in a letter
that the sword should be given me, and the
clergy sent me it. It lay underground — I am
not certain whether at the front or at the back
of the altar. It was cleaned by the people
belonging to the church. They had a scabbard
made for me ; also one was made at Tours —
one of velvet, the other of black cloth. I
had also a third one for the Fierbois sword
made of very strong leather.'

' Were you wearing that sword, ' asked
Beaupere, ' when you were captured ? '

' No, I had not one then ; I used to wear
it constantly up to the time that I left Saint
Denis, after the assault on Paris.'

' What benediction did you bestow on that
sword ? '

' None,' said Joan ; and she added, on being
questioned as to her feeling about the Sword,
that she had a particular liking for it, from its
having been found in the Church of Sainte
Catherine, her favourite saint.

Then Beaupere inquired whether Joan was
not in the habit of placing this sword on the
altar, in order to bring it good luck.

Joan answered in the negative.

'But then,' the priest asked, 'had she not
prayed that it might bring her good fortune ? '

'It is enough to know,' answered Joan,
' that I wished my armour might bring me
good fortune.'

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 175

' What had become of the Fierbois sword ? '
asked the priest.

' I offered up at Saint Denis,' answered
Joan, ' a sword and some armour, but not the
Fierbois sword.'

' Had you it when at Lagny ? ' asked
Beaupere.'

' Yes,' answered the prisoner.

But between the time passed at Lagny and
Compiegne she wore another sword, taken from
a Burgundian soldier, which she said was a good
weapon, able to deal shrewd blows. But she
would not satisfy Beaupere's curiosity as to what
had become of the sword of Fierbois : ' That,'
she said, 'has nothing to do with the trial.'

Beaupere next inquired as to what had
become of Joan of Arc's goods.

She said her brother had her horses and
her goods ; she said she believed the latter
amounted to some twelve thousand dais.

'Had you not,' asked the priest, 'when
you went to Orleans, a banner or pennon ? Of
what colour was that ? '

' My banner had a field all covered with
flsurs-de-lis. In it was represented the world,
with angels on either side. It was white, made
of white cloth, of a kind called coucassin. On
it was written Jesu Maria. It was bordered
with silk.'

' Which were you fondest of.'* ' asked Beau-
pere, — ' your banner or your sword ? '

'I loved my banner,' was the answer, 'forty
times as much as I did my sword.'

176 JOAN OF ARC.

' Who painted your banner ? '

This Joan would not say.

' Who bore your flag ? ' asked the priest.

Joan of Arc said she carried it herself when
charging the enemy, 'in order,' she added, 'to
avoid killing any one. I never killed any one,'
she said.

' How many soldiers did the King give
you, ' asked the priest, ' when he gave you a
command ? '

' Between ten and twelve thousand men,'
answered Joan.

Then Beaupere questioned her regarding
the relief of Orleans, and he was told by
the Maid that she first went to the redoubt
of Saint Loup by the bridge.

' Did you expect,' was the next question,
' that you would be able to raise the siege ? '

'Yes,' she was certain, Joan answered, from
a revelation which she had received, and of
which she had told the King before making
the expedition.

'At the time of the assault,' asked Beau-
pere, ' did you not tell your soldiers that you
alone would receive all the arrows, bolts, and
stones discharged by the cannon and culverins .■* '

'No,' she answered, 'there were over a
hundred wounded ; but,' she added, ' I said to
my people, " Be assured that you will raise the
siege.

' Were you wounded ? ' asked the priest.

'I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'at the
assault of the fortress on the bridge. I was

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 177

struck and wounded by an arrow or a dart ; but
-I received much comfort from Saint Catherine,
and I recovered in less than fifteen days. I
recovered, and in spite of the wound I did
not give up riding or working.'

' Did you know beforehand that you would
be wounded ? ' asked Beaupere.

'Yes,' was the answer; 'and I had told my
King I should be wounded. My saints had told
me of it'

'In what manner were you wounded.''' he
asked.

' I was,' she answered, ' the first to raise
a ladder against the fortress at the bridge.
While raising the ladder I was struck by the
bolt.'

'Why,' now asked the priest, 'did you not
come to terms with the English captains at
Jargeau ? '

'The knights about me,' she answered, 'told
the English that they could not have a truce
of fifteen days, which they wanted ; but that
they and their horses must leave the place at
once.'

' And what did you say ? '

' I told them that if they left the place
with their side arms {petites cottes) their lives
would be spared. If not, that Jargeau would
be stormed.'

' Had you then consulted your voices to
know whether you should accord them that
delay or not ? '

Joan did not remember.

M

178 JOAN OF ARC.

Here closed the fourth day's trial.

The fifth day of the trial took place on the
I St of March. Fifty- eight judges were present.

The opening proceedings were the same as
on the former occasions, and Joan of Arc
again professed her willingness to answer all
questions put to her regarding her deeds as
readily as if she were in the presence of the
Pope of Rome himself; but, as formerly, she
gave no promise of revealing what her voices
had told her.

Beaupere caught immediately at the oppor-
tunity of her having spoken of the Pope to
lay a pitfall in her path : Which Pope did she
believe the authentic one — he at Avignon or the
one in Rome ?

' Are there two ? ' she asked. This was an
awkward question to those bishops and doctors
of the faith who had for so long a time en-
couraged the schism in the Church.

Beaupere evaded the question, and asked
her if it were true that she had received a
letter from the Count of Armagnac asking her
which of the two Popes he was bound to obey.

A copy of this letter was produced, as well as
the one sent by Joan of Arc in reply.

When she sent her answer, the Maid said,
she was about to mount her horse, and had
told him she would be able better to answer
his question when at rest in Paris or elsewhere.
The copy of her letter which was now read,
Joan said, did not quite agree with that she
had sent to Armagnac.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 179

'She had not,' Joan added, 'said in her
letter that what she knew was by the inspira-
tion of Heaven.'

Again pressed as to which of the two Popes
she believed the true one, she said that the one
then in Rome was to her that one.

Questioned regarding her letter to the Eng-
lish before Orleans, she acknowledged the ac-
curateness of the copy produced, with the
exception of a slight mistake. She retracted
nothing regarding this letter, and declared that
the English would, ere seven years were passed
from that time, give a more striking proof of
their loss of power in France than that which
they had shown before Orleans. This predic-
tion was literally carried out when, in 1436,
Paris opened its gates to Charles VII., the loss
of the capital being shortly after followed by
the loss of all the other English conquests,
with the exception of the town of Calais — the
gains of a century of war being snatched from
them in a score of years.

'They will meet,' said Joan of Arc, 'with
greater reverses than have yet befallen them.'

When she was asked what made her speak
thus, she answered that these things had been
revealed to her. The examination again turned
upon her voices and apparitions.

' Do they always appear to you in the same
dress.'* Always in the same form, and richly
crowned ? '

Similar foolish questions were then put to
her. Had the saints long hair.? She did not

1 80 JOAN OF ARC.

know. And what language did they converse
in with her?

'Their language,' she replied, 'is good and
beautiful.'

' What sort of voices were theirs ? '

'They speak to me in soft and beautiful
French voices,' she said.

' Does not Saint Margaret speak in English? '

'How should she,' was the answer, 'when
she is not on the side of the English?'

' Do they wear ear-rings ? '

This Joan could not say ; but the idiotic
question reminded the prisoner that Cauchon
had taken a ring from her. She had worn two
— one had been taken by the Burgundians when
she was captured, the other by the Bishop. The
former had been given her by her parents, the
latter by one of her brothers. This ring she
asked Cauchon to give the Church.

'Had she not,' she was asked, 'made use of
these rings to heal the sick ? '

She had never done so.

It is very easy throughout all these question-
ings to see how eager Cauchon and the other
judges were to find some acknowledgment from
the lips of Joan of Arc, upon which they could
found a charge of heresy against her. Her
visions were distorted by them into a proof
of infernal agency ; even the harmless super-
stitions of her village home did not escape
being turned into idolatrous and infernal matters
of belief.

Had not her saints, questioned the Bishop,

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. i8i

appeared to her beneath the haunted oak of
Domremy ? — and what had they promised her
besides the re-establishment of Charles upon
the throne ?

'They promised,' she answered, 'to take me
with them to Paradise, which I had prayed them
to do.'

' Nothing more ? ' queried Cauchon.

' If they made me another promise,' Joan
replied, ' I am not at liberty to say what that
promise is till three months are past.'

' Did they say that you would be free in
three months' time ? '

That question remained unanswered, but be-
fore those three months had passed, the heroine
had been delivered by death from all earthly
sufferings.

She was again minutely questioned regard-
ing the superstitions of her country. Was there
not growing there a certain fabulous plant,
called Mandragora ? Joan of Arc knew no-
thing regarding such a plant — had never seen it,
and did not know the use of it. Again the
apparitions were brought forward.

' What was Saint Michel like ? Was he
clothed ? '

' Do you think,' was the answer to this
question, which could only have occurred to a
foul-minded priest, ' do you think that God
cannot clothe him ? '

Other absurd questions followed — as to his
hair; long or short? Had he a pair of scales
with him? As before, Joan of Arc answered

1 82 JOAN OF ARC.

these futile, and sometimes indecent, questions
with her wonderful patience. At one moment
she could not help exclaiming how supremely-
happy the sight of her saints made her ; it
seemed as if a sudden vision of her beloved
saints had been vouchsafed her in the midst
of that crowd of persecuting priests.

She was again told to tell what the sign
or secret was which she had revealed to , the
King on first seeing him at Chinon ; but about
this she was firm as adamant, and refused to
give any information. To reveal that sign or
secret would, she felt, be not only a breach of
confidence and disloyalty between her and her
King, but a crime to divulge a sacred secret,
which Charles kept sealed in his breast, and
which she was determined to utter to no one,
and least of all to his enemies.

' I have already said,' she told her judges,
' that you will have nothing from me about
that. Go and ask the King ! '

Then followed questions as to the fashion
of the crown that the King had worn at
Rheims : which brought the fifth day of the
trial' to a close.

The sixth and last day's public examina-
tion took place on the 3rd of March, forty-two
judges present. The long series of questions
were nearly all relating to the appearance of
the saints. Both questions and answers were
nearly the same as on the previous occasions,
and little more information was got from the
prisoner.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 183

After these, the subject of her dress — what
she then wore, and what she had worn — was
entered upon.

'When you came to the King,' she was
asked, 'did he not inquire if your change in
dress was owing to a revelation or not ? '

'I have already answered,' said Joan, 'that
I do not remember if he asked me. This
evidence was made known when I was at
Poitiers.'

'And the doctors who examined you,' asked
Beaupere, 'at Poitiers, did they not want to
know regarding your being dressed in man's
clothes ? '

' I don't remember,' she answered ; ' but
they asked me when I had first begun to
wear man's dress, and I told them that it was
when I was at Vaucouleurs.'

She was then asked whether the Queen
had not asked her to leave off wearing male
clothes. She answered that that had nothing
to do with the trial.

' But,' next inquired Beaupere, 'when you
were at the castle of Beaurevoir, did not the
ladies there ask you to do so ? '

'Yes,' was the answer, 'and they offered
to give me a woman's dress. But the time
had not yet come.' She would, she added,
have yielded sooner to the wishes of those
ladies than to those of any other, the Queen
excepled,

:1 .:.The subject of the flags and banners used by
her during her campaigns was now entered on.

i84 JOAN OF ARC.

Had her standards not been" copied by the
men-at-arms ?

'They did so at their pleasures,' she an-
swered.

'Of what material was the banner made?
If the poles were broken, were they renewed?'

'They were,' she answered, 'when broken.'

'Did you not,' asked Beaupere, 'say that
the flags made like your banners were of
good augury ? '

'What I said,' answered Joan, 'to my
soldiers was, that they should attack the enemy
with boldness.'

' Did you not sprinkle holy water on the
banners ? '

To this question Joan refused to answer.

Next she was questioned about a certain
Friar Richard, the preaching friar who had
seen her at Troyes. She answered that he
came to her making the sign of the Cross,
and that she told him to come up to her with-
out fear.

She was asked if it was true that she had
pictures painted of herself in the likeness of a
saint.

'When at Arras,' she answered, 'she had
seen a portrait of herself, in which she was
represented kneeling before the King and pre-
senting him with a letter.'

' But was there not a picture of you,' asked
Beaupere, ' in your host's house at Orleans ? '

Joan of Arc knew nothing regarding such
a picture.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL 185

' Did you not know,' was the next ques-
tion put, 'that your partisans had prayers and
masses said in your honour ? '

'If they did so,' she answered, 'it was not
by my wish ; but if they prayed for me,' she
added, 'there was no harm in so doing.'

She was then asked what her opinion was
regarding the people who kissed her hands and
her feet, and even her clothes. She answered
that, inasmuch as she could, she prevented them
doing so ; but she acknowledged that the poor
people flocked eagerly around her, and that she
gave them all the assistance in her power.

She was next asked if she had not stood
sponsor to some children baptized at Rheims.

'Not at Rheims,' she said; but she had for
one child at Troyes. She had also stood sponsor
for two children at Saint Denis, and she had
gladly had the boy christened by the name of
Charles in honour of the King, and the girl
Joan, as it pleased their mothers.

' Did the women not touch your rings and
charms 1 '

'Many,' she answered, 'were wont to touch
both my hands and my rings ; but I know not
with what intention.'

' Did she not receive the sacrament and con-
fess herself as she passed through the country?'

' Often,' she answered.

'And did you,' asked the priest, 'receive
the sacrament in your male attire ? '

'Yes,' she said; 'but not, if I recollect right,
when wearing my armour.'

1 86 JOAN OF ARC.

This confession of having received the
Eucharist in her male dress was made one
of the accusations of sacrilege by Joan of Arc's
judges.

She was next questioned about a horse she
had bought from the Bishop of Senlis, and
ridden in battle.

The next point related to the supposed
miraculous resurrection — a very temporary one
however — of an infant three days old at Lagny.
When Joan was in that place, this child ap-
peared to have died, and was put before the
image of the Virgin, in front of which some
young women were kneeling. Joan of Arc
joined them in their prayers, upon which it
was noticed that the supposed dead infant gave
some signs of life ; he or she was baptized,
and soon after expired. Joan of Arc had
never for a moment supposed that it was
owing to her presence and her prayers that
this miracle had occurred.

'But,' asked Beaupere, 'was it not the
common talk of the town of Lagny that you
had performed this miracle, and had been the
means of restoring the infant to life ? '

' I did not inquire,' she said.

She was then asked about the woman,
Catherine de la Rochelle, whom, it may be re-
membered, Joan had discovered to be a vulgar
impostor, and whom she had tried to dissuade
from making people believe that she could dis-
cover hidden treasures, advising her to return
to her husband and her children.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 187

Next she was asked why she had tried to
escape from her prison tower at Beaurevoir.
She said that she had made the attempt,
although against the warning of her voices,
which had counselled her to have patience —
but that Saint Catherine had comforted her
after her fall from the tower, telling her that
she would recover, and also that Compiegne
would not be taken.

It was tried to prove that in order not to
fall into the hands of the enemy she intended
committing suicide. To this accusation she
answered : —

' I have already said that I would sooner
give up my soul into God's keeping, than fall
into the hands of the English.'

And with this ended the sixth and last
public day of the heroine's trial.

Joan of Arc's judges had found nothing to
attach guilt to her in any of her replies ; but
as she had been condemned before the farce
was enacted of trying her, her innocence could
not save her life. As Michelet observes, Joan
of Arc's answers may have had some effect
in touching the hearts of even such men as
were her judges ; and it was perhaps on this
account that Cauchon thought it more prudent
to continue holding the trial with only a few,
and those few picked men, of whose sympathies,
characters, and feelings he was sure. The
Bishop's ostensible reason in having the trial
henceforth carried on in private was in order
' not to tire the others.' A most thoughtful

1 88 JOAN OF ARC.

and tender-hearted Bishop ! The details of the
trial were now placed in the hands of two
judges and two witnesses. Cauchon now felt
he had a free hand. On the 12th of March
he had obtained the permission of the Grand
Inquisitor of the Holy Office in France to
make use of the services of his Vicar-General
— his name, as has already been said, was John
Lemaitre.

The first of the long series of secret inter-
rogations was held in Joan of Arc's prison —
probably in the principal tower — on the loth
of March.

John de la Fontaine questioned the prisoner
as follows : —

' When you went to Compiegne from which
place did you start ? '

' From Crespy-en-Valois.'

' When you arrived at Compiegne did many
days elapse before you made the sortie ? '

' I arrived secretly at an early hour of the
morning, and entered the town so that the
enemy could not be aware of my arrival, and
the same day, in the evening, I made the sortie
in which I was captured.'

' Were the bells of the church rung on the
occasion of your arrival ? '

' If they were, it was not by my command.
I had not given it a thought.'

' Did you not order them to be rung ? '

' I have no recollection of having done so.'

' Did you make the sortie by the command
of your voices ? '

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 189

' Last Easter, when in the trenches of
Melun, the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret told me I should be taken prisoner
before St. John's Day ; but that I was to keep
a brave heart, and take all that befell me with
patience, and that in the end God would come
to my aid.'

' Since then, did your voices tell you that
you would be taken ? '

' Yes, often ; nearly every day ; and I im-
plored my voices that when I was taken I
might then die, and not suffer a long imprison-
ment : and the voices said, "Be without fear,
for these things must happen." But they did
not tell me the time when I should be taken,
for had I known that I should not have made
that sortie.'

' Did you not question them about the time
in which you would be taken ? '

' I often inquired ; but they never told me.

' Did your voices cause you to make that
sortie, and not tell you the manner by which
you would be captured ? '

' Had I known the hour of my capture I
should not have gone out voluntarily ; but had
my voices ordered me to go and I had known,
then would I have gone all the same, whatever
might have happened.'

' When you made the sally did you pass
over the bridge at Compiegne ? '

' I passed over the bridge and along the
redoubt ; and I charged with my soldiers against
John de Luxembourg's men. Twice were they

I90 JOAN OF ARC.

driven back as far as the quarters of the
Burgundlans ; the third time half as far. While
so engaged the English arrived, and cut off
our communications. While returning towards
the bridge, I was taken in the meadows on
the side nearest to Picardy.'

' Upon your banner, the one you carried,
was not a picture painted representing the world
and two angels .'' What was the significance of
that?"

' My saints told me to carry that banner
boldly.'

' Did you not also bear arms and a shield ? '

' Not I ; but the King gave my brothers a
coat-of-arms ; a shield with a blue ground, on
which were two fleurs-de-lis of gold, and a
sword between.'

' Did you make a present to your brothers of
those arms ? '

' They were given my brothers by the King,
without any request made by me.'

' What kind of horse were you riding when
you were captured ? '

' I was mounted on a demi-coursier.'

' Who had given you that horse 1 '

'My King,' answered Joan of Arc; and she
went on to tell them how she had had fine
horses purchased by the King for her use ; she
also gave them an account of her few pos-
sessions.

There is, indeed, so much repetition in the
questions and answers during these long ex-
aminations, that it would be a weariness to the

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 191

reader did one minutely re-write them as they
appear in the chronicle. We shall therefore
confine ourselves to the principal and most im-
portant facts and statements which bear most
prominently on our heroine's career, and on
the answers most characteristic made by her.

The remainder of that first day's trial in the
prison consisted nearly entirely of trying to
elicit from Joan of Arc what was the special
sign or secret that she had revealed to the
King at Chinon. She, however, gave them no
further information than in saying that the sign
was a beautiful and honoured mark of Divine
favour. For hours she was urged to tell of what
this special sign or token consisted — whether of
precious stones, gold, or silver. Joan, who ap-
parently was wearied out by the pertinacity of
her inquisitors, seems to have allowed herself
to mix with the reality the fabulous, and de-
scribed that an angel had appeared to Charles
bringing him a crown of matchless beauty. She
seems, poor creature, half dazed and bewildered
by her sufferings and her tormentors, to have
mixed up in her mind and in her replies the
actual event of the King's coronation at Rheims
with her angelic visions and voices ; for to her
one must have appeared as real and actual as
the other.

Nine examinations in the prison tower of
Rouen were undergone by Joan of Arc : — Once
on the loth of March; twice on the 12th, and
again on the 13th; twice on the 14th; again
on the 15th; and twice more on the 17th. In

192 JOAN OF ARC.

all these successive trials, nothing of importance
was obtained by the judges from the prisoner.
Both answers and questions were similar to
those which have already been recorded during
the days of her examinations in public. Through-
out all this trying process of a week's long and
minute cross-questioning, the heroine maintained
the same firmness, and answered with the same
simple dignity as on the former occasions. Two
of her answers may be justly called sublime.
When during the course of the seventh day's
trial, she was asked what doctrine Saint Michel
had inspired her with, she answered : —

' The pity that I have for the Kingdom of
France ! '

And again, when at the close of the last
day's examination she was asked why she had
taken such special care that her banner should
be carried and held near the King during the
ceremony of the coronation, she answered : —

'If it had been in the travail it was right
that it should be in the place of greatest honour.'
('// avait dt4 a la peine ; c^tait bien raison qtiil
fut a r/ionneur /')

Glorious words, worthy of her who spoke
them ! They bear with them an heroic ring,
and reveal by one sublime expression the very
soul and spirit of Joan of Arc!

Little as the secret interrogations had re-
vealed to Joan of Arc's examiners regarding the
mysterious sign they were so eager to wrest
from her, Cauchon had succeeded in inveigling
his victim into making statements he considered

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 193

could be used in a charge of heresy against
hfer;

When bidden to say if she would be ready
to submit herself regarding all her actions to
the determination of the Church, she answered
that she loved the Church, and was ready to
obey its doctrines as far as lay in her power ;
and on being asked to which Church she al-
luded, whether to the Church Militant or to
the Church Triumphant, she replied, ' I have
been sent to France by God and the Virgin
Mary, and by the saints of the Church Victorious
from above, and to that Church I submit myself,
and all that I have done or may have to do ! '

This answer did not satisfy Cauchon, and
he again inquired to which Church she sub-
mitted ; but Joan had already answered, and
would say no more — and on this Cauchon fixed
his accusation of heresy against the heroine.
Having failed throughout the trial to get Joan
to say anything incriminating regarding Charles
VII. or anything which might tend to injure him
in the minds of his subjects, Cauchon had Joan
questioned as to what she thought respecting
the murder of the Duke of Orleans by Charles.

' It was a great misfortune for the kingdom
of France,' was her answer.

Could the wariest statesman have better
parried that question 1 Not on one single
occasion during the long series of questions
that Joan of Arc was made to undergo, without
any counsel or help, and with some of the
subtlest brains in the country eager to involve

N

194 JOAN OF ARC.

her in damaging statements and to entangle
her in saying something which might be taken
up as injurious to Charles — that mean prince,
who made so much by her devotion to him
and his cause, and in return for that devotion
had not taken a step towards attempting her
deliverance — not at any time did she drop one
word or let an expression escape her which
could cause any uneasiness to the King, who
had proved himself so utterly unworthy of such
a subject, or to the men about the King's
person, some of whom, if not actually guilty
of having given her over to her enemies, at
any rate had allowed her to be kept during
all those long months a close prisoner, without
protest or any sign of sympathy.

When the judges asked Joan if she were
as willing to answer the questions put to her,
standing in the presence of the Pope, as she
had done in the presence of the Bishop of
Beauvais, she replied that she would willingly
do so. The idea of referring her case to the
Pope was not at all what Cauchon wished to
enter her mind ; and when he found that John
de la Fontaine and two monks had visited the
prisoner and advised her to submit herself to
Rome, he was furious, and threatened them with
condign punishment. They only escaped the
Bishop's anger by taking flight from Rouen.
It was not too soon for Cauchon's object that
the trial was now conducted with closed doors.
Joan of Arc's courage, firmness, and simplicity,
accompanied by her transparent truth and pure

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 195

fervent belief in her mission, impressed even
her judges — and much more so those who had
attended the pubHc days of her trial as specta-
tors. Now and again, after one of her straight-
forward and brave answers, which would expose
and lay bare the malicious intention of the
question, voices were heard to say in the
great hall, ' Well spoken, Joan ! ' and an Eng-
lish knight was overheard to declare that, for
his part, he regretted that such a courageous
maid had not been born an Englishwoman. A
reaction in favour of the heroine might have
set in, and, as we have already said, it was for
fear of this that Cauchon caused the trial in
future to be held in private. It is clear from
the previous narrative that the prisoner had no
one to advise her, no one to support her. At
the commencement of the trial she asked to be
allowed counsel, but Cauchon refused this most
just demand. Among the crowd of doctors and
clergy it was impossible but that, now and
again, some feeling of interest, even of sym-
pathy, should gain a few of these men, who, in
spite of their education and surroundings, were
human beings after all. But whenever such
feeling was shown, Cauchon, ever on the watch,
sternly repressed its manifestation. The name
of Isambard de la Pierre should be remembered
for good ; for he, although one of the creatures of
the detestable Inquisition, showed humanity to
Cauchon's victim. During the examinations it
was the wont of Isambard to place himself as
near as possible to Joan of Arc, and by nudging

196 JOAN OF ARC.

her, or by some sign, he attempted to help
her and advise her in her answers to the
questions of the judges. Cauchon's evil eye,
however, at length detected Isambard's conduct,
and he informed Warwick of it. Soon after,
Isambard was confronted by Warwick, and the
latter, with many abusive words, threatened to
have him drowned in the Seine if he dared
assist Joan of Arc.

Though the Maid's treatment in the dun-
geon of the castle was not, after the beginning
of the trial, so barbarous as in the first days
after her arrival at Rouen, when she was
treated like a caged wild animal, the poor pri-
soner was watched day and night by three
soldiers, who, one must fear, outraged every
sense of humanity in their treatment of Joan.
The very term houspiller proves that they were
set apart to embitter the prisoner's already too
cruel state. Although Joan of Arc never her-
self disclosed the abominable fact, the reason
for retaining and continuing to wear her male
dress was that it served her as a protection
from these ruffians. Chained to a heavy wooden
beam, her sufferings must have been at times
almost beyond endurance ; but In this long
torture, which was only to terminate in the
flaming death, her wonderful constancy and
heaven-inspired spirit never failed. Had she
given way to a kind of despair, as happened
shortly before her final release — for only a few
moments indeed — her jailers would not have
neglected to record such weakness as a sign

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 197

that her heavenly agencies had failed, if not for-
saken her utterly. What appears to have con-
stituted the greatest privation to Joan of Arc
during her imprisonment was not being allowed
the consolation of receiving the rites of the re-
ligion she so fervently believed. During the
days on which the public examinations were
held in the hall of the castle, she was wont to
be led from her dungeon by a passage lead-
ing to the place of judgment : the castle chapel
was passed in traversing this passage. One day
while going by the chapel door she asked one
of the sheriffs, Massieu, whether the Eucharist
was then exposed within the chapel, and, if so,
whether she might be permitted to kneel before
the entrance. The man was humane enough
to allow her to do so, but this coming to the
knowledge of one of Cauchon's familiars, the
sheriff was told if he allowed the prisoner
again to kneel before the chapel door that he
would be thrown into prison — 'and,' added
Cauchon, ' in a prison where no light of sun
or moon should appear ! '

But perhaps among so many instances of
cruelty and bigotry, the most infamous act of
all the many in this tragedy was that performed
by the Canon Nicolas Loiseleur, a creature of
Cauchon, as false, as cruel, and as unscrupu-
lous as his master and patron. This reverend
scoundrel had, at the beginning of the trial, by
his feigned sympathy for the prisoner, wormed
himself into Joan of Arc's confidence. He
told her that he, too, came from near her

198 JOAN OF ARC.

home, that he in his heart of hearts belonged
to the French side, that he was a prisoner on
account of his known devotion to Charles and
to France, and many other such lies. This
Judas — half in the character of a layman, half in
that of a confessor, and wholly as a sympathetic
friend and a fellow -sufferer — paid the prisoner
long visits, disguised both as priest and lay-
man, as the part suited the day's action best.
Loiseleur actually used the means of extracting
information from Joan of Arc under the seal of
confession, to be afterwards employed against
her by Cauchon. While these conversations and
confessions took place, Warwick and Cauchon
would be concealed in a part of the dungeon
from which they could overhear what passed
between the two — one of whom worthily might
be called an angel, the other truthfully a devil.
With the Bishop and knight — whose conduct as
regards Joan of Arc deeply tarnished an other-
wise high character — were seated clerks, who
wrote down what passed in these meetings.
The clerks, to their credit, are said to have at
first refused to comply with doing such dirty
work.

Cauchon gained but little by this infamy.
Nothing of any importance could be constructed
out of the prisoner's confidence and confessions ;
but Cauchon was, through Loiseleur, enabled to
tender such advice to Joan as made her answers
coincide more closely with his wishes than they
otherwise could have done ; especially those re-
lating to the Church Triumphant and Militant.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 199

When his crime had borne fruit, Loiseleur,
like another Judas, was overwhelmed with an
intolerable remorse ; and, although he obtained
his victim's pardon, his end appears to have
been as sudden as that of Judas, if not also
self-inflicted. By a lawyer named John Lohier,
whom he consulted during the course of the
trial, Cauchon was not so well served as he
had been by Loiseleur. This Lohier, who
was a Norman and seems to have been a
worthy man, had the courage to tell Cauchon
that inasmuch as Joan of Arc was being tried
in secret and without benefit of counsel, the pro-
ceedings were null and worthless. Like all who
showed any interest for the prisoner, Lohier
was threatened by Cauchon with imprisonment,
but he escaped and found refuge in Rome.

On Passion Sunday, the i8th of March,
Cauchon held a meeting of a dozen of the
lawyers, including the Vice- Inquisitor, and asked
them to give their opinion on some of the
answers of Joan of Arc. He held a second
and similar consistory on the 22nd of that
month, at which it was decided to shape into
the, form of a series of articles the chief heads
of accusation. This, when made out, was to
be submitted to the prisoner. On the 24th,
the Bishop, accompanied by the Vice- Inquisitor
and some others, proceeded to the dungeon in
which Joan of Arc was kept. The day was
Palm Sunday, and the great French historian
Michelet has, with his accustomed skill and
bright, vivid word-painting, in his short but

200 JOAN OF ARC.

incomparable Life of the heroine not only of
France but of humanity, reminded his readers
with what a longing Joan of Arc must, on that
festival of joy and triumph, have yearned for
the privilege 'to breathe once again the fresh
air of heaven.' Daughter of the fields, born
on the border of the woods, she who had
always lived under the open sky had to pass
Easter Day in a dark dungeon tower. To
her the great succour which the Church in-
vokes upon that day did not reach — her prison
door did not fly open.

It may be recalled that on Palm Sunday
the morning prayer in the office of the Roman
Church contains these words : ' Deus in ad-
jutorium meuni intende! For her, however,
no earthly gate was to be thrown open wide.
The gate through which she was to pass from
suffering and death into life eternal and peace
everlasting — i^per angusta ad augusta) — was, how-
ever, not far distant. But she had stillj to wait
awhile amid the ever-darkening shadows.

'If,' said Cauchon to Joan, 'you will cease
to wear this man's dress, and dress as you
would do were you back in your home, you
shall be allowed to hear Mass.'

But Joan could not be prevailed on to con-
sent to abandon the costume, which, as we have
said, proved her safeguard against the brutality
of her jailers.

By the 26th of March the articles were
drawn up and ready, and were approved of in
a meeting held by Cauchon in his own house.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 201

And on these articles, or rather heads of
articles, the further trial of the prisoner was to
be carried on.

The examination took place on the days
following in a chamber next to the great hall
in the castle. Nine judges, besides Cauchon,
attended. The Bishop ordered Joan to answer
categorically all the accusations on which she
was arraigned ; if she refused to do so, or re-
mained silent beyond a given time, he threatened
her with excommunication. He went on to
declare that all her judges were men of high
position, well versed in all matters appertaining
to Church and State ; and he had the audacity
to qualify them — and probably included himself
among them — as being benins et pitoyables,
having no wish to inflict corporal punishment
upon Joan, but filled only with the pious desire
of leading her into the way of truth and salva-
tion. 'Seeing that,' he continued, 'she was not
sufficiently versed in such weighty matters as
those they had now to deal with, they in their
pitifulness and benignity, would allow her to
choose among the learned doctors present, one
or more to aid her with counsel and advice.'

The Bishop had probably guessed that by
this time Joan of Arc would have ceased to
care for the benefit of counsel, having had to do
without it till now ; and his asking her whether
she wished for it was merely made in order to
appear as an act of judicial indulgence on his
part — perhaps, also, what Lohier had urged
regarding the illegality of trying his prisoner

202 JOAN OF ARC.

without giving her the help of counsel may
have influenced him.

In a few simple words Joan of Arc thanked
the Bishop and the others for the offer, of
which she, however, declined to avail herself.
She added that she felt no need now of having
any human counsel, for that she had that of
her Lord to aid her.

Thomas de Courcelles next proceeded to
read the articles contained in the act of accusa-
tion. These were so long that they occupied
the remainder of that and the next day's sitting.
This first series of articles — for there were forty
more to follow — consisted of thirty heads, and
forms one of the most glaring examples of what
the human mind is capable of inventing when
thoroughly steeped in bigotry, stupidity, and
cruelty. The Bishop of Beauvais may have
been congratulated on producing the most
momentous mass of accusation, intended to
destroy the life and reputation of a peerless
and perfect woman and to blast the career of
his native sovereign : it only redounded to the
Bishop's everlasting shame and infamy.

We will spare the reader a detailed sum-
mary of these articles — articles which have the
lie so palpably and strongly writ all over them,
that we can but hesitate whether to be more
surprised or disgusted that even such a man
as Cauchon could dare to bring them into
court.

The preamble of the articles gave the gist
of what was to follow, and showed up the true

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 203

spirit of Joan's 'benign and merciful judges.'
It consisted of one long string of abuse, in
which the terms 'sorceress,' 'false prophet,' 'a
practiser of magic,' and 'devilish arts,' were
freely used. Joan of Arc was declared in this
preamble to be 'abominable in the eyes of
God and man ' ; a violator of all laws — divine,
ecclesiastical and natural. To sum up all the
epithets, she was termed ' heretical, or, at any
rate, strongly suspected of being so.' This ac-
cusation, the most awful that those cruel times
held, must have sounded to all those men present
as the heroine's knell of doom.

Then followed the thirty articles of accusa-
tion. Never, indeed, had a short but well filled
career, bright with glorious deeds, undertaken
for King and fatherland — never had such a life
(for no life ever approached that of the Maid's)
been so ludicrously, so violently and wilfully
misrepresented. Her most innocent words and
actions were turned into accusations of sorcery,
witchcraft, vice, and every kind of wickedness.
Her harmless and pure youth was made to
appear a childhood of sorcery and idolatrous
superstition ; she was accused in her earliest
years of having trafficked with evil spirits : it
was alleged that she had consorted with
witches ; that she had frequented places where
spirits and fairies best loved to congregate ;
that she had taken part in sacrilegious dancing ;
that she had suspended wreaths on the trees
in honour of these rural spirits ; that she had
carried hidden about her person a plant called

204 JOAN OF ARC.

Mandragora, hoping by it to obtain good luck ;
that she had left her parents against their
will to go to Neufchateau, and lived in that
place among a debauched set of people : that
in consequence of all these wicked acts, a
youth who intended marrying her had not
done so. Then, having left not a stage or an
act of her innocent girlhood unblasted, and
covered with the slime of the Bishop's reptile-
like imagination, her acts when with the King
were reviewed. She had promised Charles to
slay all the English in France ; her cruelty
and love of bloodshed were insatiable ; she had
influenced Charles by acts of magic ; her
banners and her rings were bewitched ; she
was schismatic, and doubted as to which was
the right Pope ; and, in spite of this, she
had the wickedness to inform the Earl of
Armagnac which of the two Popes he was to
believe the genuine. Of all this long tissue of
crimes laid to her charge, that of wearing a
man's dress was made the most heinous ; for
the Almighty had made it a crime abomin-
able to Himself, that woman should wear man's
dress. Now, not only had the prisoner com-
mitted this sin, but she had added to it by
affirming that she did so by the wish of God
— she had done even worse ; for did she not
refuse when at the castle of Beaurevoir to wear
woman's dress, also when at Arras, and even
now in Rouen 1 So obstinate was she in her
wickedness that she had refused to comply with
the Bishop's wish that she should leave off

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 205

these clothes, although he had told her she
would be allowed to assist at the offices of the
Church If she would consent to do so.

To all these accusations, at the end of
each paragraph, Cauchon bade Courcelles, who
read the accusations, to pause, and would then
ask the prisoner what answer she had to make
to that accusation. Joan of Arc contented her-
self by simply denying the alleged crime, or
else she referred to the answers she had made
to the same, or similar questions, during the
former days when under examination. Some
of her replies were, as they often had been
during those trials, grand in their simplicity.
For instance, when asked a difficult and even
perplexing question relating to her belief in the
Church Militant, she said : — ' I believe that the
Holy Father, the Bishops, and other clergy, are
here for the protection of the Christian faith,
and to punish those who deserve it. As to
my acts,' she continued, ' I submit them to the
Church in Heaven, to God, to the Holy Virgin,
and the Saints in Paradise. I have not failed,'
she proudly added, ' in the Christian religion ;
nor will I ever do so.'

When repeatedly questioned about the change
of costume, and of its importance regarding her
being allowed to attend Mass or not, she said :
' In the eyes of the Saviour the dress of those
who receive the Sacrament can have no im-
portance.'

On the day after, the 28th of March, the same
chamber was used for the trial, and the same

2o6 JOAN OF ARC.

indictments were entered on. That almost in-
terminable series of accusations numbered some
seventy charges. On that day, Joan of Arc
appears to have ceased to deny at any length
the string of false evidence brought against her ;
she generally replied that she had already an-
swered as to the crimes laid to her charge, or
simply said, ' I refer myself to my Saviour.'
Two of her answers are worth recording : the
first, when accused of having been guilty not
only of discarding the proper dress of her sex,
but also of having acted the part of a man,
she said : ' As to women's occupation there are
plenty of them to occupy themselves with such
things ' ; and to the second question, when
taunted with having carried out her mission with
violence and slaughter, she answered : ' I im-
plored at the commencement of my mission that
peace might be made, while, at the same time,
I declared that if that was not agreed to, I
was willing to fight.' When she was accused of
having made war on the Burgundians and the
English alike, she made the distinguishing dif-
ference between them by saying : — ' As to the
Duke of Burgundy, I wrote to him, and asked
him through his envoys that peace should be
made between him and my King. As regards
the English, the only peace that could be made
with them is when they have returned to Eng-
land.' The Maid's natural modesty and sim-
plicity are apparent in a circumstance which
occurred in one of those long days of searching
examination and cross-questioning. When the

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 207

sentence she had used, and which had been
noted down in the minutes of an early day of
the trial, was read as follows : ' All that I
have done has been done by the advice of my
Saviour,' she stopped the clerk, and said that
it should stand thus : ' All that I have done
well has been done by the advice of my Saviour.'
When she was asked by what form of words
she prayed to her Saints to come to her assist-
ance, she repeated the following prayer : — ' Very
blessed God, in. honour of your holy Passion, I
beseech you, if you love me, that you will re-
veal to me what I am to answer these Church-
men. I know concerning the dress the reason
for which I have adopted it, but I know not in
what manner I am to discard it. For this thing
I beseech you to tell me what to do.' And
she added that after this prayer her voices were
soon heard.

On the 31st of March, Cauchon, accom-
panied by the Vice-Inquisitor and some other
of the judges, had an interview with the pri-
soner. They again inquired of Joan of Arc
whether she submitted herself wholly and en-
tirely into the hands of the Church Militant.
She answered that if such were her Saviour's
wish she was quite willing to do so. The
accusations were now set forth afresh, in twelve
chief heads or articles, under which the series
of calumnies was summarised before they
should be submitted to the University of Paris.
These twelve heads, which formed the founda-
tion of Joan of Arc's condemnation, were never

2o8 JOAN OF ARC.

shown her ; and she had therefore no chance of
contradicting any of the grossly false charges
of which they were full. Like the trial itself,
these articles were merely a sham invented for
the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of
the people, who by these, it was hoped, would
be persuaded that the law of the Church and
State had been acted up to. The heads of these
articles were as follows : —

First — A woman pretends to have had
communication with Saints from her thirteenth
year ; and she affirms that they have counselled
her to dress in male attire ; she affirms that
she has found her salvation, and refuses to
submit herself to the Church.

Second — She affirms that, through a sign,
she persuaded the King to believe in her ;
and that accompanied by an angel she placed
a crown upon his head.

Third — She affirms her companionship with
Saint Michel and other Saints.

Fourth — She affirms certain things will occur
by the revelation obtained by her from certain
Saints.

Fifth — She affirms that her wearing a man's
dress is done by her through the will of God ;
she has sinned by receiving the Sacrament in
that garb, which she says she would sooner die
than quit wearing.

Sixth — She admits having written letters
signed with the names of Jesus and Mary and
with the sign of a cross. That, also, she admits
having threatened death to those who would

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 209

not obey her ; and she affirms that all she has
done has been accomplished by the Divine will.

Seventh — She gives a false account of her
journey to Vaucouleurs and to Chinon.

Eighth — She also gives an untrue account of
her attempt to kill herself at Beaurevoir, sooner
than fall into the power of the English.

Ninth — And also gives false statements of
her assurance of salvation, provided she remains
a maid, and of never having committed any sin.

Tenth — And also of her pretending that
Saints Catherine and Margaret speak to her in
French, and not in English, as they do not
belong to the latter side.

Eleventh — She admits the adoration of her
Saints ; her disobedience to her parents ; and
of saying that if the evil one were to appear
in the likeness of Saint Michel she would know
it was not the Saint.

Twelfth — Admits that she refuses to submit
to the Church Militant, and this in spite of
being told that all faithful members of the
Church must, by the article ' Unani Sanctam
Ecclesiam Catholicam,' comply with and submit
to the commands of the Church Militant, and
principally in all things which pertain to sacred
doctrines and the ecclesiastical sanctions.

This was the substance of the twelve ar-
ticles which Cauchon laid before the doctors of
theology and law in Paris. No one knew better
than the Bishop how false these were ; Manchon
himself had been so impressed with their utter
fraudulence that he had inserted in their margin,

o

2IO JOAN OF ARC.

under the date of the 4th of April, the state-
ment that in many instances the facts alleged
were entirely at variance with the declarations
of the prisoner. Cauchon despatched the ar-
ticles to Paris on the following day, April the
5th. M. Wallon, in his admirable and exhaus-
tive history of Joan of Arc, has remarked that
all her deeds were in these twelve articles tra-
vestied from acts of piety or patriotism into acts
of superstition and rebellion against God and His
Church. 'What,' asks M. Wallon, 'had her
accusers to reproach her with ? Her visions .''
None of her judges could declare these were
impossible, for then they would declare them-
selves unbelievers in the history of all the saints,
which is full of such visions. They might
deny them if they pleased, but it required all
the wilful blindness of passion to affirm, once
such things were articles of belief, that they
came from Satanic influence.' As regards Joan
of Arc's costume, she had on several occasions
answered with sufficient clearness, and every
person might have made a like answer, that
there is no hard and fast law laid down by the
Church relating to the costume that may be
worn by members of the Church. Nay more,
it was notorious that one of the female saints
of the Church (Sainte Marine) had always worn
a man's dress. The question as to her dress
had been gone into thoroughly during Joan of
Arc's examination by the Churchmen and lay-
men at Poitiers ; that which the Church had
not blamed at Poitiers could not therefore be

IMPRIS ON MEN T A ND TRIA L. 211

a sin in Rouen. By the same token, how was
it possible for Joan to believe that what had
not been disapproved of by the Archbishop at
Rheims should be considered a criminal offence
by the Bishop of Beauvais? As regards the
question of her submission to the Church, Joan
of Arc replied, when asked if she would submit
to its will, in these words : ' You speak to me
of the "Church Militant" and of the "Church
Triumphant." I do not understand the signifi-
cation of those terms ; but I wish to submit
myself to the Church as all good Christians
should do.' What more could be required of
her than this entire submission to the Church ?
She had made that answer to the doctors and
clergy at Poitiers, and it had entirely satisfied
those men. What Joan of Arc had a clear
rig-ht not to do was to submit herself to her
arch-enemy the Bishop of Beauvais. When she
asked what Cauchon and his judges called the
' Church Militant,' she was told it consisted of
the Pope and the prelates below him. She
thereupon exclaimed she would willingly appear
before him, but that she would not submit to
the judgment of her enemies, and particularly
not to Cauchon. ' In saying this,' adds M.
Wallon, 'she displayed her usual courageous
spirit. How eagerly had she,' he remarks
(when told that if she would submit herself to
the Council then sitting at Bale, where she
would find some judges of her party among
the English), 'appealed to be allowed to bring
her case before that Council ; and it will be

212 JOAN OF ARC.

remembered how Cauchon cursed the lawyer
who had brought forward the suggestion dur-
ing the trial.' On that occasion escaped from
the prisoner's Hps the cry which showed how
well she knew the unscrupulousness of her
judges. On learning that her wish to appeal
to the Council of Bale by Cauchon's order was
not to appear in that day's report of the trial,
she said, ' You write down what is against me,
but you will not write what is favourable to
me.' Along with the twelve articles, Cauchon
enclosed a letter to the lawyers in Paris asking
for their opinion on what he calls the facts
submitted to them, 'whether they do not appear
to be contrary to the orthodox faith, to the
Scriptures, and to the Church of Rome, and
whether the learned members of the Church
and doctors do not consider such things as
stated in these articles as scandalous, dangerous
to civil order, injurious and adverse to public
morals.' In every way Cauchon's letter was
worthy of its author.

On the 1 2th of April a meeting under the
presidency of Erard Emenyart, consisting of a
score of lawyers and clergy, was held in the
chapel of the archiepiscopal palace. At this
meeting, with scarcely a dissentient voice, it
was voted that Joan of Arc had by her deeds
and her expressed opinions proved herself
schismatical and strongly tainted with heresy.
A second meeting took place in the same
building on the following day, attended by
some more Church functionaries. Some of

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 213

these suggested that the prisoner should be
promptly handed over to the secular arm — if
she refuses still to renounce her errors — and
if she acknowledges them, her fate will then
be to be imprisoned for life, and given for
nourishment 'the bread of sorrows and the
water of anguish.' Eleven advocates — all be-
longing to Rouen — however, added the following
clause, that the latter should be her punishment,
'provided that her revelations do not come
from God.' But with the fear of Cauchon
before them, they added to this clause that
the revelations coming from such a source
seems hardly probable, and they appeal to the
bachelors in theology to set them right on
that head. The Bishop of Lisieux, who had
already given as his reason for not believing
that Joan of Arc's mission could be Heaven-
inspired the fact of the low station from which
she came, now repeated the same absurdity
on this occasion. There were others who
preferred delaying their verdict until the de-
cision arrived at by the University of Paris
had been made known. A number of the
Churchmen belonging to the Chapter of the
Cathedral of Rouen hesitated, divided between
two opinions, for and against the Maid, and
of these only twenty put in an appearance
when summoned by Cauchon to meet on the
13th of April. They were threatened and
bullied by the Bishop to come in stronger
numbers on the next day, when they attended
to the number of thirty-one, but could not be

214 JOAN OF ARC.

prevailed on to give a definite opinion until
the answer arrived from the University — which
ultimatum Cauchon had to take with as much
grace as he could. While these things were
taking place, Joan of Arc fell ill — worn out
probably by her long and harsh imprisonment,
by the mental as well as physical torment
she must have undergone during those weeks
of cross-questioning and endless browbeating.
Her jailers were more alarmed about her con-
dition than she was herself, for were she to
die a natural death, half the moral effect her
enemies counted on obtaining by giving her
the death of a sorceress and heretic would
be lost. Doctors were sent for — sent by the
Cardinal of Winchester and Warwick. When
asked what ailed her she said that her illness
had commenced after eating a fish that had
been sent her by the Bishop of Beauvais.
Warwick is said to have had the brutality
to tell the doctors that her life must be
saved at all hazards, for she had to die by the
hands of the executioners. The doctors ordered
her to be bled, and her naturally strong con-
stitution soon restored her to health. During
the days of the weakness following her illness,
Cauchon, thinking probably that more might
be then wrung from her than when well, came
to see her. This was on the i8th of April.
He went to the dungeon accompanied by the
Vice- Inquisitor and half-a-dozen judges, and the
following charitable exhortation, as the chroni-
cler styles it, took place.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 215

'We have come,' began Cauchon, 'to you
with charitable and amiable intentions, to con-
sole you in your sickness. You will remember,
Joan, how you have been questioned on various
matters relating to the faith, and you know the
answers you made. Knowing your ignorance re-
lating to such matters, we are willing to send
learned and well-versed men in such matters.'
Then turning to the lawyers and others present,
the Bishop continued : ' We exhort you to give
Joan profitable counsel on the obligations which
appertain to the true doctrine of the faith, and
to the furtherance of the safety and welfare of
her body and soul. Joan,' continued Cauchon,
' if there be any one else you wish to consult in
this matter, we are ready to send for such in
order that they may aid you. We are men of
the Church, ever ready to aid those in need of
advice good for the soul as well as the body,
and ready to benefit you or any of your own
kith, or ourselves. We should gladly give you
daily such to advise you. In a word, we are
ready, under the circumstances, to aid you, as
does the Church itself, ever ready to help all
such who will willingly come to her. But be-
ware to act against our advice and exhortation.
For if you still should refuse to submit yourself
to us, we shall abandon you. Judge then of the
peril you lie in in that case. It is this peril
which we hope to prevent you from falling into
with all our strength and all our affection.'

To this Mephistophelean address Joan of Arc
made the following reply : ' I render you my

2i6 JOAN OF ARC.

best thanks for what you have said respecting
the salvation of my soul ; and it seems to me,
seeing the illness I am now suffering, that I am in
danger of dying. If this is to happen, God's will
be done. I will only ask you to allow me to con-
fess, and to partake of the Blessed Sacrament,
and that my body may be laid in holy ground.'

Cauchon replied as follows : ' If you wish to
receive the Sacraments of the Church you must
confess yourself like a good Catholic, and you
must also submit yourself to the Church. If
you persevere in not doing so, you cannot ob-
tain what you desire, except that for Penitence,
which we are always ready to administer.'

Joan wearily said to this : ' I have then no-
thing more to say.'

The Bishop, however, had no wish that the
interview should end thus, and continued : ' The
greater your danger of now dying is, the greater
reason have you to amend your life ; if you do
not submit yourself to the Church, then you will
not obtain the privilege of a Catholic to its Sacra-
ments.'

To this she answered : ' If I die here in
prison, I trust my body will be placed in conse-
crated earth. If you refuse me this favour, I
can but appeal to my Saviour ! '

'You said,' quoth Cauchon, 'during the trial
that if you had done or said anything that was
against our Christian faith you could not sup-
port it ! '

'I refer myself,' said Joan, 'to the answer I
then made, and to our Lord ! '

IMPRIS ON MEN T AND TRIAL. 217

'You said,' continued tlie Bishop, 'that you
had received many revelations both from God and
from the saints. Suppose, then, that now some
worthy person were to appear, declaring that
they had received a revelation from God about
your deeds, would you believe that person ? '

To this the prisoner replied : ' There is not
a Christian on earth, who, coming to me and
saying that he came by such revelation, I should
not know whether to believe or not, for I should
know whether he were true or false by Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret.'

'But,' said Cauchon, 'do you imagine then
that God is not able to reveal to some one
besides yourself things that you may be ignorant
about ? '

Joan answered : ' Without a sign, I should
not believe man or woman.'

Then Cauchon asked Joan if she believed
in the holy Scriptures ?

'You know that I do,' she answered.

Then the Bishop again returned to the
question whether or not the prisoner consented
to submit herself to the Church Militant, by
which the Church Temporal should be under-
stood.

Now, as before, Joan qf Arc's answer was
unchanged.

'Whatever,' she said, 'may happen to me,
I shall neither do nor say anything further than
that I have already declared during the trial.'

In vain all the venerable doctors present
exhorted the prisoner to make her submission ;

2i8 JOAN OF ARC.

they quoted Scripture, chapter and verse, to
her (Matt, xviii.), without obtaining any more
success than the Bishop had done.

As they were leaving the prison one of
these 'venerable doctors' hissed to Joan: 'If
you refuse to submit to the Church, the Church
will abandon you as if you were a Saracen.'

To this Joan of Arc replied : ' I am a good
Christian — a Christian born and baptized — and
a Christian I shall die.'

Before Cauchon left his victim he made
one further attempt to obtain a decided answer
from Joan of Arc, this time making use of a
bait which he thought must catch her — namely,
permission to receive the Communion : ' As,'
he said, ' you desire the Eucharist, will you, if
you are allowed to do so, submit yourself to
the Church ? '

To this offer Joan answered: 'As to that
submission I can give no other answer than
that I have already given you. I love God ;
Him I serve, as a good Christian should. Were
I able I would help the Church with all my
strength.'

'But,' said Cauchon, 'if we were to order
a grand procession to restore your health, then
would you not submit yourself?'

' I only request,' she answered, ' that the
Church and all good Catholics will pray for me.'

Some of the judges had suggested that,
in a more public place than in her prison, Joan
of Arc should be again admonished relating
to the crimes of which she was accused ; and

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 219

Cauchon accordingly summoned a public meet-
ing of the judges for the 2nd of May, to be held
in a chamber near the Great Hall.

On that day sixty-two judges were present.
Cauchon took care that the actual charges con-
tained in the twelve articles which had been
sent to the University should not be read in
the presence of the prisoner, and told her that
she had only been summoned in order to receive
another admonition before a larger assemblage
than had as yet met.

In his opening allocution he told his audi-
ence that the private admonition had been un-
attended with good results, that Joan had refused
to submit herself to the Church, and that he
had accordingly invited to the present meet-
ing a learned doctor of theology, namely, John
de Chatillon, archdeacon of Evreux, whose elo-
quence he doubted not would have a beneficial
effect upon the stubbornness of the prisoner.

On Joan being led into the room, the Bishop
admonished her to listen to what Chatillon
would now lay before her, and to agree to what
he would advise. If she would not do so, he
added, she would place herself in jeopardy,
both as to her body and as to her soul.

Chatillon then took up his parable, which
was to the effect that all faithful Christians
must conform to the tenets of the Church ; and
that he trusted she would do so to all that the
doctors lay and spiritual there present expected

her.

The Archdeacon held a digest of his sermon

220 JOAN OF ARC.

in his hand. Seeing this, Joan of Arc requested
him to read his book, after which, she said, she
would make her answer.

The speech, or sermon, that he then de-
Hvered was an exhaustive examination of the
twelve articles, brought under six heads, but
much altered and garbled.

In the first place, he admonished her of not
having given a full account of her apparitions
to the Church through her judges ; secondly, he
told her of her culpability in insisting on re-
taining her male attire ; thirdly, of her wicked-
ness in asserting that she committed no crime
in retaining that dress ; fourthly, her sin in
holding as true revelations that could only lead
the people into error ; fifthly, that she had,
owing to these revelations, done deeds dis-
pleasing to the Divine will ; and lastly, that she
was committing a sin in treating the apparitions
as holy, when she was not certain whether
they did not come from evil spirits. When
Chatillon said that by not conforming to the
article ' Sandani Ecclesiam, ' she placed herself
in the power of the Church to condemn her to
the flames, and to be burnt as a heretic, she
answered boldly :

' I will not say aught else than that I have
already spoken ; and were I even to see the
fire I should say the same ! '

After this answer in the minutes of that
day's trial is written by the clerk in the
margin of the vellum :

' Superba responsio ! '

IMPRIS ONMENT A ND TRIA Z, 221

That was a testimony of admiration which
neither the fears of persecution nor of supersti-
tion could prevent from appearing.

Nothing more was to be obtained from the
prisoner's lips than this declaration, either by
private or public examinations. This being so,
Cauchon bethought him what further cruelty
could be employed to force the prisoner to give
way, and the barbarous scheme of torture was
decided on.

The only portion of the old castle of
Rouen that has survived Time, war, revolutions,
and rebuilding (although partially restored), is
a massive high tower, built of white stone,
called the Tower of Joan of Arc. This is not
the tower of the castle which contained the
heroine's dungeon, but it has always been tra-
ditionally regarded as that in which, on the 9th
of May, Joan of Arc was led to where her
judges intended, by fear or by the infliction of
bodily torment, to oblige her to make the
confession which she had so steadily and for
so long a time refused. The lower portion of
this tower only is ancient, for from about its
centre to the top is a restoration.

The chamber to which Joan of Arc was led,
and where the instruments of torture and the
executioners were waiting, is probably that on
the ground floor, and is but little changed from
what it was on that May morning in the year
of grace 143 1.

In that dark stone chamber with its groined
roof, besides the prisoner, were present Cauchon,

222 JOAN OF ARC.

with the Vice- Inquisitor, the Abbot of Saint
Corneille of Compiegne, William Erard, Andrew
Marguerie, Nicolas de Venderes, John Massieu,
William Haiton, Aubert Morel, and the infam-
ous Loiseleur. Ranged round the circular walls
were placed the instruments of torture, and men
skilled in their use were ready at hand.

' Joan,' said Cauchon, who had now dropped
his hypocritical semblance of sympathy, which
he had assumed when interrogating the prisoner
in her cell, 'I command you to tell the truth.
In your examination many and various points
have been touched on, about which you refused
to answer, or, when you did so, answered un-
truthfully. Of this we have certain proof.
These points will now be read to you.'

What was then read was probably a sum-
mary of the articles of impeachment.

Cauchon then continued : ' If, Joan, you now
refuse to speak the truth, you will be put to
the torture. You see before you the instruments
which are prepared, and by them stand the exe-
cutioners, who are ready to do their office at
our command. You will be tortured in order
that you may be led into the way of truth, and
for the salvation of your body and soul, which
you by your lies have exposed to so great a
peril.'

It was at this terrible juncture that Joan
showed her indomitable spirit more clearly than
at any moment since her capture. In front of
her lay the rack upon which, at a signal from
Cauchon, her limbs would be wrenched asunder ;

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 223

but her reply, as given in the minutes written
by the clerk who was present, bears the ring of
a courage superior to all the terrors which con-
fronted her.

'Even,' she said, 'if you tear me limb from
limb, and even if you kill me, I will not tell you
anything further. And even were I forced to
do so, I should afterwards declare that it was
only because of the torture that I had spoken
differently.'

That was an answer which sums up the
whole folly and crime of obtaining evidence by
means of torture, and recalls Galileo's famous
phrase when in a somewhat similar situation.

Cauchon then again ordered Joan to tell
them of her revelations, and asked her if she
had again sought counsel from her voices.

She had, answered Joan.

'And have they,' asked the Bishop, 'fore-
told what will now happen ? '

'I asked them,' answered Joan of Arc, 'if
I should be burnt, and they answered : " Abide
by your Lord and He will aid you." '

There is little more than the above recorded
of what took place, but it is probable that Joan,
who had as yet hardly recovered from her
illness, was, from fear of her dying under the
torture, not subjected to it. At any rate, that
additional horror was not to be laid on the
consciences of the already heavily burthened
judges of the Maid.

It appears, however, that these men had
not altogether given up the idea of carrying

224 JOAN OF ARC.

out this barbarity, so congenial to such a man
as Cauchon and to his friend the Inquisitor ;
for a meeting was summoned by Cauchon at his
house three days after Joan had been brought
face to face with the torture apparatus, at which
the question was discussed as to whether it
should not after all be used.

Thirteen judges met the Bishop and the
Inquisitor to discuss the question. Of these
the following were against applying torture :
Maitres Roussel, Venderes, Marguerie, Erard,
Barbier, Gastinel, Coppequesne, Ledoux, De
la Pierre, Haiton, and Lemaistre. One of
these, Erard, remarked that it was unnecessary
to torture the prisoner seeing that, as he ex-
pressed it, ' they had already sufficient evidence
to condemn her to death without putting her
to torment.' But Thomas de Courcelles, and
Loiseleur were in favour that it should be
made use of Surely the names of these men
deserve to be held in execration, and placed
by the side of Cauchon's in the historic pillory
of everlasting infamy.

Meanwhile the University of Paris were
deliberating upon their answer to the twelve
articles. This body met on the 29th of April,
within the convent of Saint Bernard. The
ancient building, in which the University held
many notable conclaves when even Popes were
judged by the doctors of Paris, still exists,
but it has been transformed into an oil ware-
house. John de Troyes, senior of the Faculty
of Theology, was the spokesman, and read the

ST. OUEN— ROUEN:

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 225

decisions of the faculty on each of the twelve
articles. It is unnecessary to go through the
long verbiage of abuse and blasphemy with
which these theologians thought it their duty to
bespatter Joan of Arc.

On every head these reverend seigneurs
condemned her. After De Troyes had finished
his reading of the opinions and the judgment,
Guerold de Boissel read the deliberations of
the Faculty of Decrees upon the six points of
accusation. ' If this woman,' so ran the rede,
'was in her right mind when she made af-
firmation of the propositions contained in the
twelve articles, one may say in the manner of
counsel and of doctrine, and to speak charitably,
first, that she is schismatic in separating herself
from obedience to the Church ; secondly, that
she is out of the pale of the law in contra-
dicting the article " Unam Sanctam Ecclesiam
Catholicam " ; thirdly, apostate, for having cut
short her hair, which was given her by God
to hide her head with, and also in having
abandoned the dress of a woman for that
of a man ; fourthly, vicious and a soothsayer,
for saying, without showing miracles, that she
is sent by God, as was Moses and John
the Baptist ; fifthly, rebel to the faith, by
remaining under the anathema framed by the
canons of the Church, and by not receiving
the Sacraments of the Church at the season
set apart by the Church, in order not to have
to cease wearing the dress of a man ; and,
sixthly, blasphemous in saying that she knows

p

226 JOAN OF ARC.

she will be received into Paradise. Therefore,
if after being charitably warned she refuses to
re-enter the Catholic faith, and thereby give
satisfaction, she shall be given over to the
secular judges, and meet with the punishment
due to her crimes.'

And the University of Paris in solemn con-
clave ratified the above judgment. The Univer-
sity also sent Cauchon a letter of commenda-
tion, in which he was held up to the general
admiration as a faithful pastor, zealous in good
works, on whom the University trusted that the
Almighty would, on the day of His manifesta-
tion, bestow an imperishable crown of glory.

Such were the sentiments of the most erudite,
most pious, and most eminent school of learning
existing in the capital of France. On the 19th
of May Cauchon summoned yet another gather-
ing of Joan's judges in the archiepiscopal palace
at Rouen. Fifty of them attended. After some
discussion, during which, a few of the learned
men present expressed their opinion that Joan
of Arc should be at once handed over to the
secular arm, it was decided that the prisoner
should again be brought before them to be
what thiey were pleased to call ' charitably ad-
monished.' Accordingly, four days after, on the
23rd of May, in a chamber near Joan of Arc's
dungeon, another meeting was held. On this
occasion a canon of Rouen, named Peter Morice,
was ordered to question the prisoner.

He commenced by delivering a long lecture,
in which he recapitulated the twelve articles,

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 227

and wound up his oration by imploring Joan
to submit herself to the Church Militant, and
threatening her with the loss of body and soul
in this world and the next if she still refused
to do so.

Joan of Arc was as unmoved and as firm
when thus threatened as she had been when
placed before the instruments of torture, and
she replied : —

'If I were to see the fire itself, the stake,
and the executioner ready to light the pile, and
were I in the midst of the flames, I should not
say anything else than what I have already
spoken during the trial, and this is my deter-
mination, even unto my death ! '

There is some probability for believing that,
during the following evening after this last meet-
ing of Joan of Arc and her judges, Loiseleur
gained admittance to the prisoner, and, under
the disguise of a friendly and sympathetic priest,
promised Joan that if she would conform to the
wishes of the judges, she should be taken out
of the prison she now lay in and the custody of
the English, and transferred to prisons belong-
ing to the Church.

Poor Joan's chief desire was that she might
be set free from the hands of the English.
Be this as it may, there is no authority given
for this idea of Loiseleur having probed her
on this point ; and Wallon, in his history of
the Maid, makes no allusion to such an inter-
view, and only states that John Beaupere went
in the morning of the 24th to the prison, and

228 JOAN OF ARC.

he was soon followed there by Nicolas Loiseleur,
who vehemently urged on Joan to comply with
the demands which the judges had made.

Nothing had been neglected to give the
greatest solemnity to the cruel farce which
Cauchon had prepared to be now enacted — a
solemnity by which the Bishop hoped to de-
grade Joan of Arc in the eyes of the people.
It was that of obliging the prisoner to make
a public apology and recantation of all her
deeds — a declaration in fact to be made by
her in the eyes of the whole world that all
she had undertaken and accomplished had been
through and by the aid of evil spirits.

By this stroke the Bishop hoped to show
to France that its heroine, instead of being a
sainted and holy maid sent by God to deliver
her country from the invader, was, by her own
open and public confession, proved to be an
emanation from Satan — a being abhorrent in
the eyes of God and man. By this device,
Cauchon hoped also to deal a blow to Charles,
for when once it became known that his ser-
vant and saviour was a creature in league with
the fiends, all the works done through her
influence, and by her prowess, including his
coronation, would also be proved to have been
accomplished by the powers of darkness, and
therefore deeds abhorrent to all good Catholics
throughout his realm.

The place chosen for the stage on which
Joan of Arc was to abjure before the eyes of
Rouen — and through Rouen the rest of France

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 229

— her deeds and her words, was the cemetery
in front of that most beautiful of all Gothic
fanes — the Church of Saint Ouen.

Adjacent to its southern wall the exquisitely
carved portal named the Marmousets, then as
now rich in statuary of royal and imperial bene-
factors of the Church, looks down upon what
is the entrance to a fair public garden. In the
fifteenth century this space was used as a place
of burial.

Here, arranged with a view to dramatic
effect, were placed two huge wooden scaffolds,
or rather platforms, which faced one another.
Upon one of these sat the Bishop of Beauvais
in state. He had on his right hand the Prince
Cardinal of Winchester, great-uncle of the child-
king Henry VI., with other notabilities of the
Church ; the Bishops of Norwich, of Noyon,
and of Therouenne ; the Vice-Inquisitor, eight
abbots, and a large number of friars and doc-
tors, clerical and lay — in fact all those who had
attended the trials of the Maid of Orleans
during the two preceding months. Upon the
opposite platform stood Joan of Arc, a crowd
of lawyers and priests about her. Here, too,
stood Loiseleur close by the prisoner ; he never
ceased urging her to conform to the commands
of the clergy about her.

A vast throng of the town's-people gathered
below, and the place was all in a turmoil. A
seething mob had followed the Maid from her
prison to the cemetery, which, already full, now
held with difficulty the fresh press of people

230 JOAN OF ARC.

who accompanied Joan of Arc and her guards
to the purHeus of the Church of Saint Ouen.

William Erard had been appointed by
Cauchon to preach in this ' terrible comedy,' as
Michelet calls this farce of the Maid's abjura-
tion. For text the monk selected the fifteenth
chapter of Saint John's gospel: 'The branch,'
etc. Erard showed in his discourse how Joan
had fallen from one sin into another, till she
had at length separated herself from the Church.
To a long string of abuse about herself Joan
of Arc listened with perfect patience ; but the
preacher, not content with hurling his invec-
tives at the prisoner, began to attack her
King for having listened to Joan's advice, by
which conduct the King had, Erard said, also
incurred the crime of heresy.

This attack on Charles roused the indigna-
tion of the Maid. Turning on the monk, without
a moment's thought of her own situation, and
the fresh danger she exposed herself to, the
noble girl exclaimed : ' By my faith, and with
all respect to you, I dare to affirm on my peril
that the King of this realm is the noblest of
Christians, and no one has greater love for the
Faith and Church than my King!'

' Silence her ! ' shrieked the preacher, beside
himself with rage at finding that these few
words from the lips of Joan of Arc had de-
stroyed all the effect of his eloquence on that
vast crowd, whose sympathy must have been
now strongly shown towards the glorious victim
before them.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 231

Again summoned to submit to the Church,
Joan said : ' I have answered on that point
already to my judges. I call upon them to
send an account of all my actions to the Holy
Father at Rome, to whom after God I submit
myself '

This was not what Cauchon wished his
victim to express, for one of the charges that
he had made against her was her refusal to
submit to the Pope. He therefore changed the
subject, and asked Joan of Arc whether she
acknowledged that there were any things evil
among those deeds she had committed or
said.

'As to my deeds and sayings,' she answered,
' I have done them by the command of God.'

'Then you admit,' said the Bishop, 'that
the King and others have sometimes urged you
to act as you have done ? '

'As to my words and actions,' she answered,
' I make no one, and particularly not the King,
responsible. If any wrong has been committed,
it is I who am to blame, and not another.'

'But,' said Cauchon, 'those acts and words
of yours which have been found evil by the
judges, will you recant them ? '

'I submit them,' said Joan, 'to God and
our Holy Father the Pope.'

'The bishops,' continued Cauchon, 'are the
judges in their dioceses, therefore you must
submit to the Church as your judges have
determined that you shall do.'

Joan still refused, and the Bishop then

232 JOAN OF ARC.

began to read the sentence condemning her
to death as a heretic.

Now arose a great uproar among the clergy
and others on the platforms and among the
crowd beneath. Loiseleur and Massieu urged
her to abjure ; the former promising that if she
consented she would, after abjuring, be taken
from her English jailers and placed in keeping
of the clergy. In the midst of the hubbub
Erard produced a parchment scroll, on which, he
told Joan, were written the different accusations
against her, which she had only to sign with
her mark to be saved. All about this abjura-
tion was a mesh of confusion to the mind of
Joan. Massieu told her she need but make a
mark on the parchment before her to be deli-
vered : if not — and he pointed down to a grim
figure near the foot of the stage they were on,
where stood the headsman with cart and assis-
tants, ready to draw her to the stake.

' Abjure ! ' cried Erard and Massieu, ' or you
will be taken and burnt.'

Even Joan of Arc's courage failed at that
sight, and all the woman in her nature asserted
itself

'Do what I tell you,' cried Loiseleur; 'ab-
jure and put on woman's dress, and all will yet
be well.'

The text of the abjuration was then hurriedly
read, Joan of Arc following it, and repeating
the words, the sense of which she had no time
to understand. She spoke the words, it is said,
as one in a dream. Some said she did this

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 233

mockingly, for she was observed to smile once
or twice ; but the poor soul's spirit was crushed,
and doubtless the whole scene was to her like an
evil dream — the poor broken-down body could
not discriminate what words she was forced to
repeat. A troubled, horrible dream must that
have seemed to the hapless maiden, standing
on that scaffold, with all the shouting mob about,
and all her deadly enemies at hand. She made
her mark on the parchment — a little cross — and
the deed was done.

In the recantation, or abjuration, thus ob-
tained from Joan of Arc, the twelve articles were
included, with all their abuse set down. Thus
was Joan obliged by her signature to declare
that all her visions and voices were false and
from evil spirits ; also that she had been guilty
of transgressing laws divine in having worn her
hair cut short and the dress of a man ; also in
having caused bloodshed ; also in having idola-
trously invoked evil spirits ; also in having
treated God and His sacraments with contempt ;
and, besides all this, of having acted schismati-
cally, and of having fallen foul of the Church :
all of which crimes and errors she now ab-
jured, and humbly submitted herself to the will
of the Church and its ordinances. She promised
with her abjuration not to relapse, and called on
Saint Peter, the Pope, as well as the Bishop of
Beauvais and other of her judges, to keep her
word.

Not content with having inveigled Joan of
Arc into signing this farrago of blasphemous

234 JOAN OF ARC.

nonsense, her judges, it seems, added fraud
to their crime by reading to the prisoner a
different recantation from that to which they
had forced her to sign her mark. The one she
marked contained only six lines, and it did
not take longer to read these few lines, an
eye-witness afterwards asserted, than it does
to repeat the ' Paternoster ' ; whereas the one
produced after the ceremony of the abjuration
filled several sides. But in an act of such
infamy as this of having cheated Joan of Arc
not only into signing a recantation of her life-
work, but of confessing to her existence hav-
ing been one long series of superstitious and
criminal workings with the spirits of evil, it
matters very little whether she signed a longer
or a shorter list of falsehoods invented by her
persecuting judges.

While these things were taking place upon
the platform on which Joan was bullied into
signing this abjuration, the English and their
faction in the crowd below began to fear that
their victim would escape them ; they had not
grasped the astuteness of the French prelate,
who was ready to hand his prisoner over to
them directly he had obtained this recantation
from her hand. Cauchon was, however, obliged
to keep them waiting until he had got that by
which he hoped to destroy Joan of Arc's fame,
and at the same time, and by the same deed,
to retain in his possession a formidable weapon
by which he thought to weaken the cause of
the French monarch.

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 235

Cauchon may well have felt on that after-
noon that what he had done for the Eng-lish
cause merited as his reward the coveted arch-
bishopric of Rouen. There remained but one
further act for him to play in this drama before
he quitted his platform. Rising from among
his brother bishops he read a list of the crimes
committed by the prisoner, and announced that,
as Joan had now, owing to her abjuration
of her sins, re-entered into the fold of the
Church, she was absolved by him from her
excommunication. However, he added, as she
had sinned so grievously against God and the
Church, he, for the sake of her soul's welfare,
condemned her to perpetual imprisonment —
'to the water of sorrow, and the bread of
anguish,' so that she might repent of her faults,
and cease ever to commit any more.

Then, in spite of the promises made to her
of being placed in the . charge of the clergy,
Cauchon ordered that Joan should be taken
back to her former prison.

Warwick is said to have displayed anger
at this termination of the proceedings. Observ-
ing this, one of the judges pacified him by
assuring him that Joan should not be allowed
to escape her fate: 'Do not fear, my lord,'
he said ; ' you will catch her yet.'

That evening the Vice- Inquisitor, accom-
panied by Loiseleur, Thomas de Courcelles,
Isambard de la Pierre, and a few other of
the judges who had taken part in the pro-
ceedings that day at Saint Ouen, visited the

236 JOAN OF ARC.

prisoner. Their object in going to her was to
insist upon her changing her man's dress, with
which demand she now had to comply. That
occurred on Thursday night, and on the Sunday
following a rumour was spread abroad that Joan
of Arc had discarded the woman's dress, and
had again put on male dress.

Although, during the last days of the hero-
ine's life, it is most difficult to gather anything
authentic as to her treatment in the prison,
we are led to understand, by the least untrust-
worthy testimony, that what happened in the
interval between Thursday night and the follow-
ing Sunday was as follows.

The soldiers placed in charge of Joan after
her recantation and her return to the prison had
rendered her existence a long martyrdom ; and
there is reason to believe that on her discard-
ing her man's dress these ruffians attempted to
violate the prisoner : so, sooner than suffer this,
although she knew that to return to her former
dress would be equivalent to meeting certain
death, she did not hesitate to save her maiden-
hood at the exposure of her life.

Michelet, in his history of the Maid, quotes
from the deposition of one of the officials — Mas-
sieu, who saw much of Joan of Arc in those
last days — the statement that on the morning
of Trinity Sunday, on waking, she asked the
soldiers to leave her alone for a few moments
while she dressed ; that one of the men re-
moved her woman's clothes, and in place sub-
stituted the dress of a man ; and that, in order

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 237

not to be naked, she was obliged to put on the
latter.

Be this as it may, on the following morning,
Cauchon, followed by several of his creatures,
returned to the prison, in order that he might
see and show to others that his victim had
been entrapped at last. 'We have come,' he
said to the prisoner, ' to find out the state of
your soul, and we find you, in despite of our
command, and despite of your promise to re-
nounce this man's dress, again thus attired. Tell
us the reason why you have dared again to wear
these clothes.'

Joan's answer was that she preferred that
dress to the other, and that, being placed among
men, it was better that she should wear it
than the dress of a woman. Although not
placed in the judicial record of this interview,
Manchon adds in his account of the proceed-
ings on that day, that Joan of Arc also said
that she had returned to wearing her male attire,
feeling safer when in that dress than when she
was dressed in woman's clothes. This seems
to us an evident avowal that she had to re-
sist the brutality of the men placed over her in
the dungeon. Massieu also adds to Manchon's
testimony that he knew Joan was unable to pro-
tect herself against attempts made to violate
her. Her legs were chained to the wood with
which her pallet bed was framed, and this chain
was again fixed to a large beam about six
feet long, and locked with a padlock ; so that
the poor creature could hardly move. To the

238 JOAN OF ARC.

above testimony of these two men, Isambard
de la Pierre adds his. He states that when
Cauchon came to the Maid's dungeon she bore
all the traces of having undergone a violent
struggle, ' being all in tears, and so bruised and
outraged (oiih-agde) that he (Isambard) could
not help feeling pity for her.'

But the strongest testimony of all is that
of the priest, Martin Ladvenu, who heard her
confession on the eve of her death, and he con-
firms Isambard's statement entirely. He even
adds that not only had Joan of Arc to suffer
from the brutality of the soldiery placed about
her, but that a millouri d Angleterre had acted
as shamefully as these men towards her.

Although Michelet and other French writers
have naturally not allowed this ' Millourt ' (which,
by the way, is quite as correct a form of spell-
ing that title as the better known ' Milor ')
to escape the branding he deserves for his
attempted villainy, it is but fair to add that
Isambard de la Pierre, as well as Manchon,
qualify his conduct as that not of a would-be
violator, but of a tempter — a not inconsiderable
difference in the scale of infamy.

To return to Cauchon and Joan of Arc.

'But,' said the Bishop, 'are you not aware
you have now no right to wear such a dress?'

Joan answered that she had been misled
into believing that if she wore the woman's
dress she would be allowed to hear Mass and
to communicate, and to be, she added, 'de-
livered from these chains.'

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 239

'But,' replied Cauchon, 'have you not ab-
jured, and promised never to take to wearing
this dress again ? '

'I would prefer to die,' she answered, 'than
to remain on a prisoner here. But if I were
allowed to go to the Mass, and these chains
were taken off me, and if I was placed in some
other prison where some woman could be near
me, then I should do all that is required of me
by the Church.'

In all Joan of Arc's answers it should be
noticed that she never, in spite of the terrible
sufferings she endured, and the gross barbarities
inflicted on her, in any single instance ever
made any complaint of her treatment. There is
something superhuman in this utter absence of
any shade of vindictiveness, when one thinks
that, by a few words, she might have saved
herself from much of what she had to suffer.
Never once did she blame even those who had
deceived, insulted, and ill-treated her ; her life
was one beautiful example, full of divine charity
and forgiveness.

Cauchon, to make doubly sure of complet-
ing his work, then asked Joan : ' Have you,
since last Thursday, heard the voices of Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret ? '

'Yes,' she answered.

'And,' continued the Bishop, ' what did they
say? '

' They told me of the great sorrow they
felt for the great treason to which I have been
led, by my abjuring and revoking my deeds in

240 JOAN OF ARC.

order to save my life, and that by so doing I
have lost my soul.'

On the margin of the original document of
the MSS. of this examination, written in the
prison, the original of which is in the National
Library in Paris, we find alongside of this
answer of Joan of Arc's the following words :
' Responsio moriifera.' Indeed it was an answer
of deadliest import ; for Joan in asserting that
her voices had again spoken to her, and in
saying that she had committed a mortal sin
by recanting her deeds, had thrown away the
only plank of safety left her.

It seems to us evident, however, that Joan
of Arc was now quite eager and willing to
meet the worst that her enemies could inflict
upon her : death itself must now have seemed
more tolerable than the daily death she was
undergoing in her prison.

' Did your voices urge you to resist giv-
ing way about the recantation ? ' questioned the
Bishop.

'My voices,' Joan said, 'told me as I stood
on the platform before the people that I should
answer the preacher with boldness.'

'Did he not,' said Cauchon, 'speak the
truth ? '

'No,' she answered, 'he was a false preacher ;
and he accused me of having done things which
I never did.'

'But,' then said Cauchon, 'do you mean to
tell us that you still persist in saying that you
have been sent by God .-' '

IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 241

To which Joan replied that that was still
her belief.

'Then,' continued the Bishop, 'you deny
that to which you swore on oath only last
Thursday ? '

'My voices,' said Joan, 'have told me since
then that I had committed a bad deed in say-
ing that I had not done the things which I
have done ! '

'Then,' continued the Bishop, with eager-
ness, ' you retract your abjuration ? '

'It was,' said Joan of Arc, 'from the fear
of being burnt that I retracted what I had
done ; but I never intended to deny or revoke
my voices.'

'But then,' said Cauchon, 'are you now no
longer afraid of being burnt ? '

' I had rather die than endure any longer
what I have now to undergo.'

And with these broken-hearted words of the
sufferer ended this long mockery of a trial, so
patiently endured during three weariful months
by the martyr Maid.

On quitting the prison, Cauchon met Lord
Warwick among some Englishmen in the outer
court of the castle. They were clamouring that
the execution of Joan of Arc should be soon
carried out. The Bishop accosted the Earl
with a smile of triumph, and said to him in
English : —

' You can dine now with a good appetite.
We have caught her at last ! '

CHAPTER VI.

MARTYRDOM.

THE next day, the 29th of May, Cauchon
summoned a large number of prelates and
doctors — forty-two in all — to meet him at the
archiepiscopal chapel, where he recounted to
them all the circumstances of his late interview
with the prisoner. He told them how he had
found Joan, in spite of her abjuration, again
dressed as a man, and of her having reaffirmed
all that she had so recently abjured regarding
her voices and apparitions. When he had con-
cluded, Cauchon took the opinion of those
around him. Without one dissentient voice,
they all affirmed that she should be handed
over to the secular arm — i.e., burnt. The de-
liberation had not taken long, and, after thank-
ing the company, the Bishop made out a formal
order by which Joan was summoned at eight
o'clock on the next morning to the old market-
place, there to be delivered into the hands of
the civil judge, and by him to be handed over
to those of the executioners. 'We conclude,'
said the Bishop, as he dismissed the meeting,
' that Joan shall be treated as a relapsed heretic,
for this appears to us right and proper in the
sight of law and justice.'

MARTYRDOM. 243

Early in the morning of Wednesday, the 30th
of May — a date which should be held sacred in
France as that of the martyrdom of her who
through all time must be her country's greatest
glory — two priests (Martin Ladvenu and John
Toutmouilld) were sent by the Bishop's order
to the prisoner to tell her that her last day
on earth had come. Toutmouille describes, with
some pathos, the manner in which Joan of Arc
received the terrible news. She, he tells us, at
first wept bitterly, and said she would sooner be
beheaded seven times than suffer such a death
as that of burning. She recalled with pain the
promises made by Cauchon to her — that after
she had abjured she would be taken to the
prison of the Church, for then, she said, this cruel
death would not have befallen her ; and she
called upon God, 'the omnipotent and just Judge,'
to take pity on her. While she thus lamented
her fate, Cauchon entered the dungeon. Turning
on him, she cried : 'I lay my death at your
door ; for had you placed me in the prison of
the Church, this cruel death would not have
befallen me, and I make you responsible to
God for my death.'

Then, turning away from the Bishop, she
appeared more calm, and, addressing one of the
judges who had followed Cauchon into the
prison, exclaimed : ' Master Peter ' — the man's
name was Peter Maurice — 'where shall I be
this evening ? '

'Have you not good hope in God's mercy?'
he answered.

244 JOAN OF ARC.

'Yes,' said Joan; 'and by His grace I hope
to be in Paradise.'

Cauchon and the others having left her
alone with Martin Ladvenu, she made her con-
fession to him, and when that was finished she
begged that the Sacrament might be adminis-
tered to her. Without Cauchon's leave Ladvenu
did not dare to obtain this supreme consolation
for the martyr.

He despatched a messenger to the Bishop,
who, after consulting with some of the clergy,
gave his permission. In the meanwhile, the
city had heard that the day of the Maid of
Orleans' execution had come, and the people
crowded about the neighbourhood of the castle.
In spite of the English soldiery, the people did
not conceal their grief and dismay on learning
that the heroine was so soon to perish. The
Eucharist was brought into the prison, but with-
out the usual accompaniments of candle, stole,
and surplice. These ' maimed rights ' raised the
indignation of the priest Martin, and he indig-
nantly refused to proceed with the ceremony
until lights and stole were brought. During
the time in which Joan of Arc was receiving
the Sacrament, those persons who had been
admitted within the castle recited the litany for
the departing soul, and never had the mourn-
ful invocation for the dying, the supplication
of the solemn chant, ' Kyrie eleison ! Chrisie
eleison ! ' been raised from a more tragic place,
or on a more heart-stirring occasion. Outside,
in the street, and all around the prison gates.

MARTYRDOM. 245

knelt the weeping people, fervently praying, and
earnestly invoking the Almighty and His saints
for her who was about to lay down her young
life in their behalf 'Christ have pity! Saint
Margaret have pity ! Pray for her, all ye saints,
archangels, and blessed martyrs, pray for her!
Saints and angels intercede for her ! From Thy
wrath, good Lord, deliver her! O, Lord God,
save her ! Have mercy on her, we beseech thee,
good Lord ! ' The poor, helpless people had
nothing but their prayers to give Joan of Arc ;
but these we may believe were not unavailing.
There are few more pathetic events recorded
in history than this weeping, helpless, praying
crowd, holding their lighted candles, and kneel-
ing, on the pavement, beneath the prison walls
of the old fortress.

It was about nine o'clock when they placed
on Joan of Arc a long white shirt, such as
criminals wore at their execution, and on her
head they set a mitre-shaped paper cap, on
which the words ' heretic, relapsed, apostate,
idolatress,' were written.

This was the head-dress which the victims
of the Inquisition carried, and in which they
were burnt.

When Joan of Arc was taken forth to die,
there mounted with her on to the cart the two
priests, Martin Ladvenu and Isambard. Eight
hundred English troops lined the road by which
the death-cart and its load passed from the
castle to the old market-place ; they were armed
with staves and with axes. These soldiers, as

246 JOAN OF ARC.

the victim passed, fell into line behind the
cart, and kept off with their staves the crowd,
eager to show its sympathy for Joan.

Suddenly, when as yet the procession had
gone but a short distance, a man pushed his
way through the crowd and the soldiers, and
threw himself at Joan of Arc's feet, imploring
her forgiveness.

It was the priest Loiseleur, Joan's confes-
sor and betrayer. Roughly thrown back by
the men-at-arms, Loiseleur disappeared in the
throng, but not before Joan had bestowed her
pardon on him. On the old market-place —
where now not a single building remains which
witnessed the tragedy of that day — was a wide
space, surrounded by picturesquely gabled and
high-roofed houses, like those which still sur-
vive in the old Norman capital, and within
a short distance of the churches of Saint
Sauveur and Saint Michel, now destroyed.
Two tribunes had been raised on either side
of the square. Between this, placed high on
a stage of masonry, stood the pile. A placard
affixed in front of this pile bore a long inscrip-
tion, beginning thus: 'Joan, known as the
Maid "... and ending with a cumbrous list of
epithets, among which ' apostate ' and ' schis-
matic ' were the least abusive.

Pending the final act, a monk named
Nicolas Midi was ordered by Cauchon to
address the prisoner and those present. The
Bishop's words have come down to us.

'For your admonition,' he began, 'and for

MARTYRDOM. 247

the edification of all those present, a learned
discourse will now be delivered by the dis-
tinguished doctor, Nicolas Midi ' ; and the
distinguished doctor then took for his text,
from the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the
Corinthians, twelfth chapter, the words : 'If
one member suffereth,' etc.

The gist of his sermon was to prove that
it was necessary, in order to prevent others fall-
ing into sin, that the guilty member should be
removed. Strange, indeed, how often the words
of Scripture have been used and mis-used in
excuse, or in vindication, of the most atrocious
cruelties by so-called Christians, professing to
preach the religion of mercy, of forgiveness,
and of humanity.

The sermon being finished, the preacher
addressed Joan of Arc in the following words :
' Joan, the Church, wishing to prevent infection,
casts you from her. She no longer protects
you. Depart in peace ! '

Then Cauchon took up his text, which was
to the effect that Joan, ' by renouncing her ab-
juration, had returned as the dog of Scripture
did to its vomit ; for which cause we, Peter, by
the divine mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and
brother John Lemaitre, vicar of the very rever-
end doctor John Graverent Inquisitor of the
heretical evil [especially retained by Cauchon
in the present case], have by a just judgment,
declared you, Joan, commonly styled the Maid,
fallen back into diverse errors and crimes, schis-
matical, idolatrous, and guilty of other sins in

248 JOAN OF ARC.

great number. For these causes we declare
you fallen back into your former errors, and
by the sentence of excommunication under
which you were already found guilty we de-
clare you to be heretical and relapsed ; and
we declare that you, as a decayed member, to
prevent the contagion from spreading to others,
are cast from the unity of the Church, and
given over to the secular power. We reject,
we cast you off, and we abandon you, praying
that, beyond death and the mutilation of your
limbs, the Church treats you with moderation.'

These last words were the usual formula
used by the Inquisition when its victims were
about to be committed to the flames. Joan
of Arc meanwhile was praying fervently ; and
when Cauchon had finished speaking, she humbly
begged those around her to pray for her. Her
tears, her fervour, and her submission, over-
came the feelings even of her judges.

Winchester was seen to weep, and a great
wave of pity swept over the immense con-
fused crowd ; for her enemies as well as her
friends among the people were all more or less
under its influence.

In her prayers the heroine implored the
Divine Mercy to pardon those from whom she
had suffered so much. ' Pray for me in your
churches,' she said to the priests — to those priests
and to the Church that had deserted and con-
demned her ; for in spite of all that she had
endured at the hands of those Churchmen, Joan
of Arc remained to the end as fervent and loyal

MARTYRDOM. 249

a Churchwoman as she had been throughout her
Kfe.

One thing she missed. Turning to Massieu,
she asked him if he had a cross. He had not,
nor could one be found ; but an Englishman
broke his stave into two pieces, and these tied
together formed a rude cross.

This cross Joan took, and placed it against
her heart ; but she still wanted a consecrated
cross to be held before her while struggling in
the flames, and this was at length obtained by
the priest Isambard, who fetched one from the
adjacent Church of Saint Sauveur.

Meanwhile the English soldiers began to
grumble at the length of these preparations :
' Do they expect us to dine here ? ' they growled.
As soon as the cross from the church had
been placed in her hands, she devoutly kissed
it, invoking God and her saints to assist her in
this the heaviest of her needs, when all human
help had abandoned her.

The heroine appears to have been then
seized by the English sergeants-at-arms, and
given by them into the charge of the execu-
tioners ; and while she was being led to the foot
of the high pile of clay and wood — the instrument
of her martyrdom — the men-at-arms surrounded
and roughly handled their prisoner. The scene
had become so poignant that many of the judges
left their tribune, unable to endure the sight of
that white-robed and helpless figure in the midst
of the brutal soldiers hounding her on to her
death. It must indeed have been a ghastly

2SO yOAN OF ARC.

spectacle, even for men accustomed to scenes
of savage brutality and cruelty. At length she
was delivered from her tormentors, and, pre-
ceded by the executioner, she mounted the
ladder, and was bound round the body by a
chain attached to the stake.

The good priest, Isambard, closely followed
her, and stood immediately beneath her, with
the cross held and raised towards Joan, who
but once removed her gaze from off it.

'Keep it,' she said to Isambard, 'keep it
always before my eyes, till death.'

Then she took a last look around her — a
last look on a world which had been so harsh
and cruel a world to her, poor victim of all
the powers of evil on this earth ! She looked
but once on the surging crowd beneath, at the
old timbered houses of the town, filled from
basement to high-peaked roof, with thousands
of its citizens. ' O, Rouen, Rouen ! ' she cried,
'must I die here? I have great fear lest you
will suffer for my death.' And with that she
put away from her all earthly things, and gave
herself up to Heaven. In the interval the
executioners had lighted the lower portion of
the pile of wood, and the fire, fed by the pitch-
covered fagots, mounted rapidly.

Joan of Arc gave a cry of terror, and called
aloud for ' Water, holy water ! ' The body had
for an instant conquered the spirit — but it was
only for an instant.

At that moment Cauchon had the incon-
ceivable and apparendy devil-driven curiosity to

MARTYRDOM. 251

approach the martyr, hoping, perhaps, that in
the first terror at seeing the fire springing up
to her, Joan of Arc would let fall some words
of reproach against her King or her saints.

'Joan,' he cried through the crackling of
the flames, ' I have come to exhort you for the
last time.'

' I die through you,' she said, as she had
said once before, and then she was allowed to
die in peace, so far as Cauchon and his Church
were concerned. For her all earthly things were
now over. Till the last sign of life expired the
eye-witnesses who have given us the fullest
account of her last moments — the priests Isam-
bard and Massieu — declared that she continued
to call on her God and on her saints. Fre-
quently through the blinding smoke and the
fierce rush of flame her face looked that of a
blessed saint uplifted and radiant.

With one loud cry of ' Jesus ! ' her head
fell on her breast.

Thus came Joan of Arc to her glorious
end.

There is a tradition that when the ashes
of the martyr Maid were gathered to be cast
into the Seine, the heart was found uncon-
sumed — Cor cordiiim !

Many other traditions are related regarding
her death, but none with much certainty. The
executioner is said to have come later on that
day to Isambard in an agony of grief. He
confessed himself, and told Isambard that he
felt Heaven would never pardon him for the

252 JOAN OF ARC.

part he had taken in killing a saint. The poor
fellow's responsibility for her death was really
not greater than that of the fagots and the
flames which had destroyed her life. On Cau-
chon and his gang of judges, lay and clerical
— on the University of Paris and the Catho-
lic Church — on Winchester and the English,
noble and simple, who had sold and bought
the glorious Maid, the crime of her martyrdom
will ever rest, and surely no other crime but
one in the world's history can be paralleled
with it.

CHAPTER VII.

THE REHABILITATION.

npWENTY years after the events which I
-*- have attempted to describe, an act of tardy
justice was accorded to Joan of Arc. Charles
VII. at length felt it necessary, more for his
own interest than for any care of the memory
of Joan of Arc, to have a revision made of the
iniquitous condemnation of the heroine.

This King, even if unable to rescue the
Maid of Orleans from her captors, might at
least have attempted her release, yet during
all the time — over a year — of her imprison-
ment he had not even made a sign in her
behalf.

There does not exist in the documents of
the time a trace of any negotiation, of the
smallest offer made to obtain her exchange by
prisoners or by ransom, or of any wish to
effect her release. But Charles was anxious
on his own account, when France had almost
wholly been gained back to its allegiance, that
his coronation at Rheims should not be im-
puted to the actions and to the aid of one
whom the Fi-ench clergy and the French judges
had condemned and executed as a heretic and

254 JOAN OF ARC.

apostate. Hence the vast judicial inquiry set on
foot by the King to vindicate the fame of her
whom the English and the Anglo-French had
hoped, through the condemnation pronounced by
Cauchon in the name of the Church, to vilify,
and through her, by her trial, condemnation, and
death, to discredit Charles and his coronation.

On the 15th of February, 1450, Charles
VII. declared that Joan of Arc's enemies had
destroyed her ' against reason ' — so ran the for-
mula — 'and very cruelly,' and that it was his,
the King's, intention ' to obtain the truth re-
ofardinar this affair.'

Pope Nicolas V. made difficulties. Cardinal
d'Estouteville, who had undertaken to manage
the process of rehabilitation, presented the Pope
with a claim for a revision of the sentence
of condemnation in the name of Joan of Arc's
mother and of her two brothers. The peti-
tion ran thus : ' The brothers, mother, and
relations of Joan, anxious that her memory and
their own should be cleansed from this un-
merited disgrace, demand that the sentence of
condemnation that was given at Rouen shall be
annulled.' Not, however, until the death of Pope
Nicolas v., and the accession of Calixtus III.,
was anything further done.

The new Pope (Alfonso Borgia) did not
hesitate as to the line he intended taking in
the matter, and he gave his sanction to the
rehabilitation of the heroine by a rescript dated
the nth of June, 1455. It was as follows: —

' We, Calixtus, servant of the servants of

THE RE HA B I LIT A TION. 2 5 5

God, accord a favourable ear to the request
which has been made us. There has lately
been brought before us on the part of Peter
and John of Arc, also of Isabella of Arc, their
mother, and some of their relations, a petition
stating that their sister, daughter, and relative,
Joan of Arc deceased, had been unjustly con-
demned as guilty of the crime of heresy and
other crimes against the Faith, on the false
testimony of the late William [John, it should
be] d'Estivet of the Episcopal Court of Beau-
vais, and of Peter of happy memory, at that
time Bishop of Beauvais, and of the late
John Lemaitre, belonging to the Inquisition.
The nullity of their proceedings and the inno-
cence of Joan are clearly established both by
documents and further by clearest proofs. In
consequence of this, the brothers, mother, and
relatives of Joan are therefore at liberty to cast
off the mark of infamy with which this trial
has falsely stamped them ; and thus they have
humbly supplicated our permission to authorise
and to proceed in this trial of rehabilitation,'

The prelates selected by the Pope as com-
missioners to follow the course of the trial of
rehabilitation were John Jouvenel des Ursins,
Archbishop of Rheims, William Chartrier, Bishop
of Paris, and Richard de Longueil, Bishop of
Coutances. On the 7th of November, 1455,
this trial was solemnly begun in the Church of
Notre Dame, in Paris.

It has been said that Joan of Arc's father
died of grief on hearing of his daughter's

2S6 JOAN OF ARC.

martyrdom. He was certainly dead before the
date of this trial. However, the now aged
mother of Joan of Arc, Isabella Rom^e d'Arc,
in her sixty-seventh year, was there. She was
supported by her two sons, John and Peter, and
was accompanied by many of her relations from
Vaucouleurs, and friends from Orleans. The
poor soul appears to have been much affected
when she appeared before the sympathetic
crowd. Many of those present must have come
from far to see the mother of the famous hero-
ine claiming at the hands of the Church the
vindication of her daughter's fame.

Two meetings took place at Notre Dame,
and a third was held at Rouen, at which the
family of Joan of Arc were unable to be
present — the mother from illness, and the
brothers by affairs at home. The Procureiir,
whose name was Prdvosteau, was the advocate
for the Arc family. The debates lasted all
through the winter, and into the early part of
the year 1456. During the debates a hun-
dred articles were drawn up and agreed to,
relating to the life, death, and trial of the
heroine. None of these are of much impor-
tance or interest.

It was not until the witnesses of Joan of
Arc's life at home, and of her actions abroad,
gave their testimony that the debates became
interesting. Then began to pass before the
eyes of the spectators a succession of people
who had known Joan of Arc, and who had
taken part in the same actions as those of the

THE REHABILITATION. 257

Maid— peasants from her native village, towns-
■ folk from Orleans, generals and soldiers who
had ridden with her into battle and fought by
her side.

In fact, here appeared all sorts and condi-
tions of men, from farm labourers to princes
of the blood royal. The testimony of these
people helps one to follow the life of Joan of
Arc throughout its short career with something
like precision. The sittings of the commis-
sioners took place at Paris, Orleans, Rouen,
and also at Domremy. It may be said without
exaggeration that the whole of France and all
its classes seemed, after an interval of a quarter
of a century, to raise its voice in honour of
the memory of its martyr Maid, and to attest
to the spotless and noble life of her country's
saviour.

At Domremy, at Vaucouleurs, and at Toul,
thirty-four witnesses were heard on the 28th of
January and on the nth of February, 1456.
At Orleans, during the months of February
and of March, forty-one depositions were col-
lected by the Archbishop of Rheims.

In Paris, in April and May, the same pre-
late, assisted by the Bishop of Paris, heard the
evidence of twenty witnesses. At Rouen, the
same commission heard nineteen others. Fin-
ally, at Lyons, the deposition of Joan of Arc's
esquire, d'Aulon, who had attended her through-
out her campaigns, was made before the Vice-
Inquisitor of that province, John Despres.

All these depositions are recorded in Latin,

R

258 JOAN OF ARC.

the only exception being that of d'Aulon, which
was taken down in French. All those written
in Latin have been translated into French by
M. Fabre, and published in his Proces de Re-
habilitation de Jeanne d' Arc.

Among the witnesses first appear the friends
and neighbours of Joan of Arc in her childhood
and early years. From her birthplace came her
greatest friends, Henriette, Mengette, and Isa-
bellette. The first of these, in the year 1456,
was aged forty-five, the second was a year
older, and the third was in her fiftieth year.
All three were the wives of labourers. Henri-
ette was married to Gerard, Mengette to John
Joyart, and Isabellette to Gerardin d'Epinal.
To the child of the last Joan had stood god-
mother. Next came from the same village
three older women, all three being god-mothers
to Joan. In those days the French peasantry
seem to have had an almost unlimited number
of god-fathers and god-mothers. These were
named Jeannette, widow of Th^pelin de Viteau,
aged sixty; Jeannette Thdverien, aged sixty-six;
and Beatrix, widow of d'Estelin, a labourer of
Domremy, then in her eightieth year.

After these three god-mothers, came to give
their evidence her god-fathers. Four of these
appear — John Rainguesson, John Barrey, John
de Langart, and John Morel de Greux. Of
these four god-fathers, only the last one seems
to have been called to give evidence ; he
was in his seventieth year. Gerardin d'Epinal,
husband of one of the god-mothers, also gave

THE REHABILITATION. 259

his evidence ; it was his son Nicolas for
whom Joan of Arc had stood sponsor. In
those days it was held that the god-mother
of a child stood to it in the relation of a
second mother : hence originated the term of
'commere' and 'compere,' which Joan gave the
d'Epinals.

Six labourers, who had been playmates with
Joan in childhood, then came forward. These
men, named respectively Le Cuin, Guillemeth,
Waterin, Colin, Masnier, and Jacquard, were
between the ages of forty-four and fifty. All
these humbly born witnesses agreed in their
answers to the twelve questions asked them
in the following order : —

1. When and where was Joan born?

2. Who were her parents ? Were they of

good character and of good repute ?

3. Who were her god-fathers ?

4. Was she piously brought up?

5. How did she conduct herself between

her seventh year up to the time she
left her home?

6. Did she often frequent the churches and

places of devotion of her free-will?

7. How did she occupy herself, and what

were her duties ?

8. Did she confess often?

9. Did she frequent the fairies' tree and

the haunted well, and did she go to
places with the other young people of
the neighbourhood?

26o JOAN OF ARC.

10. How did she leave her home, and how

did she accomplish her journey ?

11. Were any investigations made in her

native country at the time she was
taken prisoner ?

12. Did Joan on one occasion escape to

Neufchateau on account of a military
raid, and was she then in the com-
pany of her parents ?

We now arrive at a higher grade in the
ranks of the witnesses, in the shape of 'I'hon-
orable homme Nicolas Bailly.' Bailly was a
man of sixty ; he had been employed by the
English in 1430, and by Cauchon — he was a
scrivener {tabellioii) by profession — to make in-
vestigations into the character of Joan in her
native place.

Then came the old bell-ringer of Joan of
Arc's village — Perrin le Brassier, aged sixty.
He told how the maiden loved the sound of
the church bells, and how she would blame
him when he neglected ringing them, and of
her little gifts to him to make him more diligent
in his office. After the bell-ringer came three
priests — all belonging to the neighbourhood of
Domremy. The first — namely, the ' discrete
personne Messire Henri Arnolin' — belonged
to Gondrecourt-le-Chiteau, near to Commercy,
and was sixty-four. The next is the 'v^ndrable
personne Messire Etienne de Sionne,' curate
of the parish church at Raucessey- sous -Neuf-
chateau, aged fifty-four ; and the third was

THE REHABILITATION. 261

named Dominic Jocab, curate of the parish
church of Moutier-sur-Saulx.

Next came an old peasant from Domremy,
named Bertrand Laclopssd, a thatcher by pro-
fession, ninety years of age ; after him three
neighbours of Joan's father — Thevenin le Royer,
seventy years old ; Jacquier, sixty ; and John
Moen, wheelwright, fifty-six. But a far more
important witness than any of the preceding
three-and-twenty was the uncle of the heroine,
Durand Laxart, farm labourer at Burey-le-Petit,
whom, it will be remembered, Joan first took
into her confidence regarding her voices and
her mission. Laxart was then in his sixtieth
year. At the close of his evidence he states
that all he had said regarding his niece he had
also told Charles VII. — probably at the time of
the coronation, for Laxart was then at Rheims.
Laxart was followed by the couple with whom
Joan of Arc lodged when living at Vaucou-
leurs, Henry and Joan le Royer (or le Charron).
After this worthy pair appeared the two brave
knights who had guarded the Maid of Orleans
during her perilous journey to Chinon — John de
Novelem-hont, commonly called John de Metz,
aged fifty-seven, and the other, named Bertrand
de Poulangy — one of the King's esquires — aged
sixty-three.

Three other knights were heard after them
— namely, Albert d'Ourche, from Ourche, near
Commercy, aged sixty ; Geoffrey du Fay, aged
fifty ; and Louis de Martigny, living at Martigny-
les-Gerboneaux, a village near Neufchateau, aged

262 JOAN OF ARC.

fifty-four. These were followed by two curates
and a sergeant. ' Discrete personne Messire Jean
le Fumeux,' of Vaucouleurs, canon of the Church
of Sainte Marie in that village, also curate of the
parish church of d'Ugny, aged only thirty-eight,
was, as he admitted, a mere child when Joan
of Arc came to Vaucouleurs ; but he remembered
distinctly having seen her praying in the church
at Vaucouleurs, and kneeling for a long time in
the subterranean chapel of Sainte Marie's Church
before an image of the Blessed Virgin.

The other priest, named John Colin, was the
curate of the parish church of Domremy, and a
canon of the collegiate church of Saint Nicolas
de Brixey, near Vaucouleurs. His age was sixty-
six. The last of these thirty-four witnesses was
the sergeant, Guillot Jacquier, aged thirty-six :
why he was called as a witness does not appear.
As a child he had heard Joan of Arc spoken of
as ' une brave fille, de bonne renommde, et de
conduite honnete,' which opinion was the general
one given in their evidence by all the other
witnesses, whose names only we have been able
to give.

Relating to the period in the life of the
heroine between the time of the King's corona-
tion and that of her capture, the facts told by
the various persons examined are few and far
between. In the trial for the rehabilitation of
the Maid of Orleans, the story of her deeds in
the field was not of much importance to the
commissioners. What they principally desired to
ascertain was the fact that no taint of heresy

THE REHABILITA TION. 263

could attach to the Hfe of the heroine. It was
for this reason that all those persons who could
throw any light upon Joan's early days and the
actions of her childhood had been collected to
give their evidence. We now come to those
witnesses who were examined regarding the
life of Joan of Arc after her interview with the
King at Chinon and about the stirring events
which immediately followed that interview. The
first of these is the ' nobile et savant homme
Messire Simon Charles,' Master of the Requests
[Mattre des requites) in the year 1429. He
had been president of the State exchequer in
1456, and was aged sixty. Simon's evidence is of
interest and importance both as regards Joan of
Arc's arrival at Chinon, and also with respect
to the siege of Orleans and the triumphant
entry into Rheims. The next witness was one
of the clergy who examined Joan when at
Poitiers ; this was a preaching friar from Li-
mousin who had asked Joan of Arc in what
language her saints spoke to her, and had been
answered by 'In a better language than yours '
— for this good friar, whose name was Brother
Sequier, spoke with a strong Limousin accent.
When he was giving his evidence before the
commission (in 1456) he was an old man in his
seventy-third year, and head of the theological
college of Poitiers.

Next to him came the evidence given by
the 'vdn^rable et savant homme Maitre Jean
Barbier, docteur es lois.' Barbier was King's-
Advocate in the House of Parliament, and had

264 JOAN OF ARC.

also been one of the judges at Joan of Arc's
examination at Poitiers : he was aged fifty.
Barbier had been at Loches when the people
threw themselves before Joan of Arc's horse, and
embraced the heroine's feet and hands. Barbier
reproved her for allowing them to do so. He
told her that if she permitted them to act thus
it would render them idolatrous in their wor-
ship of her, to which reprimand Joan answered,
' Indeed, without God's help I could not pre-
vent them from becoming so.'

Another of the Poitiers witnesses was Go-
bert Thibault, also aged fifty. This Thibault
had been at Chinon when Joan arrived there,
and had followed her to Orleans. Among
these Poitiers witnesses was Francis Garivel,
aged forty. Garivel, when a lad of fifteen, had
seen Joan at Poitiers, and he remembered that
on her being asked why she styled Charles
Dauphin, and not by his kingly title, she
replied that she could not give him his regal
title until he had been crowned and anointed
at Rheims.

The collected testimony of the above wit-
nesses, whose evidence covers the time passed
by Joan at Poitiers, was submitted to Charles
VII., and the MSS. exist in the National
Library in Paris. It has been edited by the
historians Bachon and Quicherat, and trans-
lated from the Latin into French by Fabre.

The next batch of witnesses' evidence con-
cerns the fighting period of Joan of Arc's life,
and consists principally of the testimony given

THE REHABILITA TION. 265

by her companions In her different campaigns,
and this appears to us by far the most Interest-
ing and curious.

Of those witnesses the first to testify was
a prince of the blood, Joan of Arcs 'beau
Due,' as she loved to call John, Duke of
Alengon. He is thus styled In the original
document : 'Illuslris ac potentissimus princeps
et dominus.'

Alenqon came of a truly noble line of an-
cestors, and was descended also from brave
warriors. His great-grandfather fell at Crecy,
leading the vanguard of the French host. His
grandfather was the companion-In-arms of the
great Du Guesclln. His father, on the field
of Agincourt, after having wounded the Duke
of York and stricken him to the ground,
crossed swords with King Harry, and then,
overwhelmed by numbers, had fallen under a
rain of blows.

With Dunois (Bastard of Orleans) Alengon
is one of the most prominent of the French
leaders who appear In Shakespeare's play, In
the first part of Henry VI. Duke John, like
his Illustrious forebears, had also fought and
bled for his country. His first campaign was
made when he was but eighteen. Alen9on
first saw Joan of Arc in 1429. A strong
mutual regard sprang up between the prince
and the Maid of Domremy. Alen^on had
wedded the daughter of the Duke of Orleans,
and It was to her that the heroine, when she
left with the Duke for their expedition against

266 JOAN OF ARC.

Paris, promised to bring back her husband in
safety.

No one had seen more of Joan of Arc
during those days of fighting than had Alengon,
and no one bore a higher testimony than did
the Duke to her purity, her courage, and the
sublime simplicity of her character. It was the
Duke of Alengon who was especially struck
with the skill shown by the heroine in war-
like matters ; particularly in her science in the
management of artillery — ridiculously rude as
that branch of the service appears to us.

'Everybody,' Alenqon says, 'was amazed to
see that in all that appertained to warfare she
acted with as much knowledge and capacity as
if she had been twenty or thirty years trained
in the art of war.'

Next to Alenqon's evidence came that of
the famous Bastard of Orleans, the Count de
Dunois, one of the most engaging and sym-
pathetic figures of the whole age of chivalry.
John of Orleans was the natural son of the
Duke of Orleans, and, as Fabre says of him,
he 'glorified the appellation of Bastard.' In-
deed, the Bastard's name deserves to be handed
down in his country's annals with as much
glory as that of his great English rival and
foe, Talbot, in those of the English. He was
a consummate soldier, who even at the early
age of twenty-three had brilliantly distinguished
himself, and he lived to liberate Normandy and
Guyenne from the English.

Well may M. Fabre, in his book on the

THE REHABILITA TION. 267

rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, express his regret
that Dunois' evidence was not set forth in the
language in which it was delivered, and that it
has come down to us weakened by translation
into Latin. What is worse is that we have only
the translation of a translation.

Dunois had, besides his high military reputa-
tion, that of being skilled in oratory. There is,
however, in the translation more than a trace
of the enthusiasm with which Dunois speaks of
the deeds of the heroic maiden. Dunois, Bas-
tard of Orleans as he is always called, bore
the following titles, as recited by the chroni-
cler : ' I'illustrieuse prince Jean Comte de Dunois
et de Longueville, lieutenant-general de notre
seigneur le roi.' He was fifty-one years old in
the month of February, 1456. His deposition
extends over the entire period of the life of
Joan of Arc between the time of her arrival
before Orleans and the period of the King's
coronation.

Dunois' evidence closes thus : — ' To conclude,
it was habitual to Joan to speak playfully on
matters relating to war, in order to cheer the
soldiers, and she may have alluded to many
military events which never were to take place.
But I declare that, when she spoke seriously
about the war, of her deeds, and of her voca-
tion, she said her work was limited to raising
the siege of Orleans, to succouring the unhappy
people shut up in that town and in its suburbs,
and to leading the King to Rheims for his
coronation and anointing.'

268 JOAN OF ARC.

Next we have the testimony of the noble
knight, Raoul de Gaucourt, who had so stoutly
defended Orleans during its long siege. De
Gaucourt was eighty-five years old. This fine
old warrior's evidence confirms all that Dunois
had said in praise of Joan of Arc.

The next to appear was the heroine's page,
Louis de Contes, aged fifteen when appointed
to attend on Joan of Arc : at the time of the
trial of her rehabilitation he was forty-two.

Next came a very interesting witness, to wit,
Joan of Arc's almoner, ' v^ndrable et religieux
personne Jean Pasquerel.' This worthy priest
had been formerly in a Tours monastery. We
do not find his age given at this time. The
clear graphic testimony of this good man is a
pleasure to read. His love and admiration for
the heroine appear in every line of his testi-
mony, and although this narrative is already too
long, it will not perhaps be considered tedious if
some of his evidence is quoted.

'When I first had tidings,' he says, 'of Joan
of Arc and of her arrival at Court, I was at Puy,
where at that time were her mother and some
people who had accompanied her to Chinon.
Having come to me, they said, " You must come
with us and see Joan ; we will not allow you to
leave us until you have seen her." So I went
with them to Chinon, and also to Tours. At
that time I was reader in a convent in that town.
When she came to Tours, Joan lived in the
house of John Dupuy, a burgher of that place.
It was there that I first met her. "Joan," they

THE REHABILITATION, 269

said to her, "we have brought this good father
to see you. When you know him well you will
like him very much." And Joan answered them
and said, " The good father pleases me much ; I
have heard about him already, and I will make
my confession to him to-morrow."

' And I heard her confession on the day fol-
lowing, when I also sang the Mass before her.
Since that I have always followed Joan, and I
remained her chaplain till the time of her capture
at Compiegne.'

It was in this good priest's evidence that
the touching trait of Joan of Arc's fondness for
gathering children about her was made known.
'She confessed nearly every day,' he said, 'and
took the Sacrament often. When near any com-
munity of begging friars she asked me to remind
her of the days on which the beggar children
received the Eucharist, so that she might receive
it at the same time with them. It was her de-
light,' he said, 'to take the Sacrament along
with the poor mendicant children. She shed
tears often at confession.'

Later on in his evidence Pasquerel adds to
the above, 'that often at night I have seen
her kneeling, praying for her King and for
the success of her mission. I certainly,' he
said, ' firmly believed in the divine source of
her mission, for she was always engaged in
good works, and she was full of every good
quality. During a campaign when provisions
ran short Joan would never take that which
had been gained by pillage. To the wounded

270 JOAN OF ARC.

she was ever pitiful — to the English as well as
to those of her own country, and she always
tried to get them to make their confession,
if badly, and even if only slightly, wounded.
The fear of God was ever before her, nor
would she for anything in the world do any-
thing which she considered contrary to His
will : for instance, when she was wounded in
the shoulder by the dart from a crossbow,
when some people wished her to allow the
wound to be charmed, promising that if she
had it done her hurt would be healed, Joan
said that to do so would be a sin, and that
she would sooner die than commit one.

' I am greatly surprised,' continued the unso-
phisticated old priest, ' that such great lawyers
{^grands clercs) as were those at Rouen could
have sentenced Joan to death. How could they
put to death that poor child, who was such a
good and such a simple Christian, and that
too, so cruelly, without a reason — for surely
they had not sufficient reason at any rate to
kill her!'

Pasquerel could evidently not grasp the real
reason for the part played by Cauchon in the
execution of the Maid of Orleans, or imagine
that in order to obtain an archbishopric his
beloved Joan had been condemned by the
Bishop of Beauvais to the flames. Pasquerel's
evidence ends thus : —

' I have nothing more to add except this.
On several occasions Joan told me that if she
were to die, she hoped our lord the King

THE REHABILITATION. 271

would found chantries in which the Almighty
might be entreated in intercession for the souls
of those who had been slain in the defence
of the kingdom.'

The next witness is John d'Aulon, knight,
Seneschal of Beaucaire, member of the King's
Council. It was he who had served Joan of
Arc as esquire during all her campaigns. His
evidence is of importance, as it proves clearly
the grounds on which the trial of rehabilitation
was held — namely, to clear the King of having
been crowned and anointed through the agency
of one condemned by the Church as an apos-
tate and heretic. The Archbishop thus wrote
to d'Aulon on the 20th of April, 1456 : —

' By the sentence pronounced against Joan
the English wish it to be believed that the
Maid was a sorceress, a heretic, and in league
with the devil, and therefore that the King had
received his kingdom by those means ; and
thus they hold as heretics the King and those
that have served him.'

Nothing- can be clearer than this declaration,
or show better the real object for which that
utterly selfish prince, Charles VII., had, after
the lapse of a quarter of a century since the
death of Joan of Arc, instituted these proceed-
ings — not at all in order to do honour to the
heroine's memory, but in order that his position
as King of France should not be tainted with
the heresy which had been charged to the
account of Joan by and through the clergy and
French doctors of theology and learning.

272 JOAN OF ARC.

D'Aulon's evidence is one of the most com-
plete of the entire set of testimonies. It was
given, not at Rouen, but at Lyons, in 1456,
before the Vice-Inquisitor, John Despres.

His depositions are remarkable in this, that,
unlike those of the other witnesses, they are re-
corded in French, and not in Latin.

Next to d'Aulon succeeds, in the chain of
witnesses, Simon Beaucroix, aged fifty. Simon
was a youth at Chinon when Joan of Arc came
there. Beaucroix's evidence is followed by that
of John Luillier, a citizen of Orleans. He bore
evidence to the immense popularity of the Maid
during- and after the siege of Orleans. At the
time of the trial of rehabilitation Luillier was
fifty. To the part played by the Maid at the
siege of his native town he speaks thus : —

' As to the question you put me, whether
I think the siege of Orleans was raised and
the town saved from the enemy by the inter-
vention and the ministration {jninistere) of the
Maid, even more than by the force of arms,
this is my answer : All my fellow citizens, as
well as I myself, believe that had the Maid not
come there by the will of God to our rescue,
we should very soon, both town and people,
have been in the power of the besiegers. It is
my belief,' he adds, 'that it was impossible for
the people of Orleans and for the army pre-
sent at Orleans to have held out much longer
against the superior strength of the enemy.'

More people from Orleans next gave their
evidence : viz. William le Charron, John Volant^

THE REHABILITA TION. 273

William Postian, Denis Roger, James de Thou,
John Canelier, Aignan de Saint-Mesmin, John
Hilaire, Jacques I'Esbalny, Cosmd de Commy,
John de Champcoux, Peter Hue, Peter Jon-
qualt, John Aubert, William Rouillart, Gentien
Cabu, Peter Vaillant, John Beaucharnys, John
Coulon. All these men were burghers of the
town, and their ages varied between forty and
seventy. All agreed with Luillier in their belief
that, under God, it was Joan of Arc who rescued
their city from the English.

Following these men we now come to the
evidence of some of the women who had seen
or known the heroine. First of these is Joan,
wife of Gilles de Saint-Mesmin, aged seventy.
She says : ' The general opinion was and is still
at Orleans that Joan was a good Catholic —
simple, humble, and of a holy life.' Such, too,
is the opinion of Joan, the wife of Guy Boyleau,
and of Guillemette, wife of John de Coulon ;
also of the widow of John de Mouchy. All
these agree with the first lady's testimony.

We have next the evidence of the daughter
of James Boucher, the treasurer of Orleans, at
whose house Joan of Arc lodged while In Or-
leans. Charlotte Boucher had married William
Houet. When her deposition was taken in 1456
she was thirty-six years old, and consequently
only nine when Joan lodged at her father's
house. However, young as she was then, the
visit of the Maid had left a great memory be-
hind ; she had been Joan's bed-fellow.

'Often,' she says, 'Joan said to my mother,

s

274 JOAN OF ARC.

" Hope in God, for He will deliver the town of
Orleans, and drive the enemy away." '

And last we find the evidence of two good
wives of Orleans, one widow of John Hurd, the
other Petronill^, wife of Beaucharnys. After these
came six clerics, canons of the Church of Saint
Aignan at Orleans — Robert de Farciaux, Peter
Compaing, Peter de la Censurey, Raoul Godert,
Herv^ Bonart, and Andr^ Bordez. Peter Milet
and his wife, Colette, were also witnesses. All
had known Joan when she was at Orleans, as
had Aignan Viole, an advocate of Parliament,
who had been in Orleans during the siege.

The ' noble homme Guillaume de Richarville,
panetier de la cour,' gave his evidence, relating
to Joan of Arc's appearance at Court, as also
did an old Court physician named Reginald
Thierry ; it is he who relates how, at the cap-
ture of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier, Joan prevented
its church from being pillaged.

A doughty warrior follows, namely, 'noble et
prudent Seigneur le chevalier Thibauld d'Ar-
magnac. Sire de Thermes, Bailli de Chartres.'
D'Armagnac was fifty years old ; he had followed
Joan of Arc all through her campaign, and, like
Alen9on, had a very high opinion of her military
talents. At the close of his evidence, he says :
' In the manner of the conduct and ordering of
troops, in that of placing them in battle array, and
of animating the men, Joan of Arc had as much
capacity for these things as the most accom-
plished captain in the art of war.'

After the soldier, the peasant. This peasant.

THE REHABILITA TION. 275

or rather mechanic, is a coppersmith named
Husson Lemaitre. Lemaitre hailed from Dom-
remy. Being in the year 1456 at Rouen, he
then and there gave his evidence. He had
known Joan of Arc's family, and Joan too in
her childhood ; of all of them he spoke most
highly.

Next comes ' honn^te et prude femme de-
moiselle Marguerite la Tournelle,' the widow of
Rene de Bouligny. It was at her house at
Bourges that Joan lodged after the coronation
at Rheims.

We now pass to an entirely different cate-
gory of witnesses. These are the men who
sat in the trial of the heroine. One can well
understand the embarrassment shown by such
folk in their replies to the questions they had
to answer, and their wish if it were possible to
turn the responsibility of their previous judg-
ment on the heads of those who were no long-er
in this world to answer the charges made against
them.

The first of these men is ' v^ndrable et
savante personne Maitre Thomas de Courcelles.'
De Courcelles was only fifty-six in 1456, when
called on to make his deposition as to the part
he had played in the heroine's trial at Rouen,
five-and- twenty years before. His evidence is
full of the feeblest argument, and his memory
appears to have been a very convenient one,
as he repeatedly evades an answer by the plea
of having forgotten all about the incident al-
luded to.

276 JOAN OF ARC.

Next follows that ' v^ndrable et circonspecte
personne, Maitre Jean Beaupere ' — a doctor of
theology, and canon of Rouen, Paris, and Be-
sangon. This circumspect person was now in
his seventieth year. He laid most of the blame
of Joan of Arc's death upon the English, and
the rest on Cauchon. The English being away,
and Cauchon dead, the circumspection of this
doctor's evidence is evident.

We next have that of the Bishop of Noyon,
John de Mailly. This bishop had been in the
service , of the English King, but had, when
Charles became prosperous, returned to him.
In 1456 he was aged sixty. An intimate of
the Prince Cardinal of Winchester, and one of
the foremost of the judges who condemned Joan
of Arc to death, his deposition in 1456 is quite
a study in the art of trying to convince people
that black is white. He had shown some kind
of feeling of humanity at the time of the mar-
tyrdom of the Maid, and had left that scene
of horror early. To the memory of his old
friend and colleague, Cauchon, he gives a part-
ing kick by saying at the close of his ex-
amination that of one thing he was quite
certain, and that was that Cauchon received
money for the conduct of the trial from his
friends, the English. But he might have now
been reminded that he too had received some
of this blood-money.

Next to appear is another French bishop,
Monseigneur Jean Le Fevre, Eveque in partibus
de D^metriade. This prelate was in his seven-

THE REHABILITATION. 277

tieth year. At the time of Joan of Arc's trial
he was professor of theology of the order of
hermit monks of Saint Augustins. The Bishop
had taken an active part in the trial and con-
demnation. Like his brother bishop, Le Fevre
enjoyed a very convenient memory, and had
quite forgotten many things of importance which
occurred during the trial in 1430. Nor did he
even take part as a spectator in the martyrdom
which he had helped to bring about — ' I left
before the end,' he said, 'not feeling the strength
to see more.' Let that shred of humanity in
the composition of priests like him be allowed
before we entirely condemn them.

The next witness is also a Churchman, Peter
Migiet, the prior of Longueville, aged seventy.
He also had been one of Cauchon's crawling
creatures. There is little of interest in his evi-
dence, except the passage where he says that an
English knight had told him that the English
feared Joan of Arc more than a hundred soldiers,
and that her very name was a source of terror
to the foe. Although this sounds an exaggerated
statement, it is not so, as is proved by an edict
having been issued by the English Government
in the May of 1430, in which English officers and
soldiers who refused to enter France for fear of
' the enchantments of the Maid ' were threatened
with severe punishment. There is, moreover,
an edict, bearing the date of December 1430,
which was also issued by the English military
authorities, describing the trial and the punish-
ment by court martial of all soldiers who had

278 JOAN OF ARC.

deserted the army in France from fear of Joan
of Arc.

After the above priests, on whom rests the
infamy of having taken part in the death of the
heroine, it is a relief to find the next witness,
although a Churchman, a man of sufficient hon-
esty and courage to have been one of those few
who refused to take any part in the iniquitous
proceedings connected with Joan of Arc's trial,
and who suffered imprisonment owing to his
unwillingness to carry out Cauchon's wishes.
This worthy priest was named Nicolas de
Houppeville, a doctor of theology, now in his
sixty-fifth year.

The next witness is John Tiphanie, a canon
of the Sainte Chapelle of Paris. He was also
a doctor in medicine. Tiphanie had been com-
pelled much against his inclination to take part
in the trial of Joan. He was one of the doctors
who were sent to see her when she lay ill in
prison.

Then follows another doctor ; this is William
Delachambre, aged only forty-eight in 1456. He
must have practised his vocation at a very early
age. Delachambre had also joined in the trial
of the Maid, from fear of Cauchon. His evi-
dence relating to the scene at Saint Ouen is
important.

'I remember well,' he says, 'the abjuration
which Joan of Arc made. She hesitated a long
while before she made it. At length William
Erard determined her to make it by telling her
that, when she had made it, she should be

THE REHABILITA TION. 279

delivered from her prison. Under this promise
she at length decided to do so, and she then
read a short profession of some six or seven
lines written on a piece of folded paper. I was
so near that I could see the writing on the
paper.'

We next come to the witness whose evidence
is, next to that of Dunois, of the greatest impor-
tance ; it is that of the Recorder, or judges'
clerk, William Manchon. Born in 1395, he was
sixty-one years of age when the rehabilitation
trial took place. Manchon's evidence takes up
thirty pages in M. Fabre's work, already often
referred \.o—Le Proces de Rehabilitation de Jeanne
d'Arc. Much against his will was Manchon ob-
liged to act in the trial of the Maid, but he
did not dare disobey the orders of those who
formed the Council of Henry VI. All that he
deposed has been made use of in the account
of the heroine's life ; so now we need do no
more than refer to it. The other Recorder who
helped Manchon to draw up the minutes of the
trial was also examined ; this was William Colles,
called Boisguillaume. He was in his sixty-sixth
year. Colles relates that, after the execution, the
people used to point out the author of Joan's
death with horror — 'besides,' he adds, 'I have
been told that the most prominent of those who
took part in her condemnation died miserably.
Nicolas Midi [who had preached the sermon
on the day of her execution, and just before
it took place] was stricken with leprosy, and
Cauchon died suddenly, while being shaved.'

28o JOAN OF ARC.

A third Recorder was also examined, Nico-
las Taquel. Then followed the priest Massieu.
During the trial of Joan he had acted as bailiff
to the Court, and in that capacity had seen
much of the prisoner ; he had always conveyed
her to and from her prison. It may be re-
membered that it was he who, on Joan's peti-
tion to be allowed to kneel before the chapel
on her way to the hall of judgment, granted
her request, and was threatened by Cauchon,
should it again occur, to be thrown into prison
where, as Cauchon said to him, he would
not have ' the light of sun or moon.' Massieu
remained till the end with Joan, and it is he
who records that the executioner found, after
the body had been destroyed, that the heart
remained unconsumed. He also relates that
the executioner was ordered to collect the
ashes and all that remained, and to throw those
few relics of humanity into the Seine, which
was accordingly done. Martin Ladvenu followed
Massieu. Ladvenu was a Dominican friar : he
was one of the few priests who showed some
humanity to the victim. It was to him that
Joan of Arc confessed on the morning of her
death, and it was also to him that the execu-
tioner came on the night of the martyrdom,
and said that no execution had ever affected
him as that one had done. Next to arrive
was Isambard de la Pierre, a Dominican priest.
He had been an acolyte of the Vice- Inquisitor,
Lemaitre ; he too, like Ladvenu, had shown
sympathy with the sufferer, had given her

THE REHABILITATION. 281

advice during the trial, and had helped to
soothe her last moments. De la Pierre states
in his evidence regarding her supposed refusal
to submit herself to the Church, that Joan of
Arc, when she was told by her judges to
submit herself, thought they meant themselves
by the Church of which they spoke to her ;
but when she was told by him what the Church
really signified she always said she submitted
herself to it and to the Pope. It was to
Isambard de la Pierre that Joan begged for
a cross when on the pile and about to die.
' As I was close by the poor child,' he says,
' she begged me humbly to go to the church
close at hand and bring her a cross to hold up
right before her eyes, till her death, so that
the cross on which God hung might as long
as she lived appear before her. She died a
true and good Christian. In the midst of the
flames she never ceased calling on the sacred
name of Jesus, and invoking the aid of the
saints in Paradise. When the fire was lit she
begged me to get down from off the stake
with my cross, but to hold it still before her,
which I did. At last, bending down her head,
with a strong voice calling on the name of
Jesus, she gave up the ghost.'

Yet another priest succeeds : this is ' vener-
able et religieux personne, frere Jean Tout-
mouilie,' of the order of the preaching friars
of Rouen. Toutmouilld was quite a youth at
the time of Joan of Arc's death. Another priest
follows, William Daval, also one of the order

282 JOAN OF ARC.

of preaching friars, and belonging to the Church
of Saint James at Rouen. He, too, had been,
with Isambard, one of the acolytes of the Vice-
Inquisitor. In his evidence, he tells of how,
after Isambard had been advising Joan in her
prison, he was met by Warwick, who threatened
to have him thrown into the river if he con-
tinued seeing the prisoner.

We next have ' venerable et circonspecte
personne Maitre Andre Marguerie ' ; this was
one of Cauchon's most trusted creatures. His
' dme damnde' Richard de Grouchet, canon of
the collegiate Church of Sans Faye, is the next
witness. There is nothing of any interest in
the testimony of these Churchmen, nor in that
of Nicolas Dubesert, another canon of Rouen,
nor in that of Nicolas Caval. Next appears a
prior, Thomas Marie, of the Church of Saint
Michel, near Rouen. Four other ecclesiastics fol-
low them — John Roquier, Peter Bouchier, John
Bonnet, John de Lenozoles ; but none of these
men's testimony is of any interest. The evi-
dence of no less a person than the torturer
is called next. He is named — to give him his
titles in full — ' Honnete homme Mauger Les-
sarmentrer, clerc non marier, appariteur de la
cour archidpiscopalle de Rouen.' The name of
the chief torturer of the good city of Rouen,
Mauger, has a gruesome ring about it — it re-
minds one of the headsman in Harrison Ains-
worth's novel of the Toiver of London. Aged
fifty-six in 1456, Mauger had seen Joan of Arc
when she was brought into the yet extant tower

THE REHABILITATION. 283

of the castle, and threatened by Cauchon with
the torture. 'We were,' deposed Mauger, 'my
companion and myself,' ordered to go there to
torture her. She was questioned, and she an-
swered with much prudence, and so well, that
every one was amazed. Finally, I and my
companion left the tower without having laid
hands upon her.' Mauger attended at the exe-
cution, and this is what he heard and saw
there and then. ' As soon as the Bishop (Cau-
chon) had read the sentence, Joan was taken
to the fire. I did not hear whether the civil
judges delivered the sentence or not. Joan
was placed instantly upon the fire. In the
midst of the flames she called out more than
six times the name of Jesus. It was when
about to give the last breath that she called
out with a loud voice, "Jesus!" so that every
one could hear her. Nearly everybody wept,
for all were overcome with pity.'

After the torturer's witness came that of
a soldier, Aimonde de Macy, who was thirty
years old when he met Joan in the Castle of
Beaurevoir ; she being then a prisoner in the
charge of Ligny.

De Macy was at Rouen at the time when
Lord Stafford came so nearly stabbing the
Maid in her prison, and was only prevented
from that dastardly act by Warwick.

We next hear the evidence of an attorney,
Peter Daron : he had also seen Joan in her
prison at Rouen, and had seen her die.

Next we have 'prudent homme Maitre Jean

284 JOAN OF ARC.

Fave, maitre des requetes du roi Charles VII.':
he, too, was present at the execution.

Next appears upon the scene 'honnete per-
sonne Laurent Guesdon,' clerk and advocate to
the lay court of Rouen. He also had been
present at the death of Joan of Arc, and, from
his office as lieutenant of the Bailiff of Rouen,
he held an important position at the execution ;
and this is some of his evidence relating to
it : 'I assisted at the last sermon preached at
the old market-place. I had accompanied the
Bailiff, being then his deputy. The sentence
was read by which Joan was abandoned to the
secular arm ; after that sentence had been pro-
nounced the executioners seized her, before
either the Bailiff or myself had time to read the
sentence ; and she was led up to the stake —
which was not as it should have been ordered.'

Next arrive as witnesses two burghers of
Rouen, Peter Cusquel and John Moreaux. Both
of them had been spectators of the martyrdom,
but they have nothing of interest to say about it.
And finally — (and doubtless the reader will be
glad to come to the end of this interminable
procession, as is the writer) — comes the deposi-
tion of John Marcel — ' bourgeois ' of Paris. Mar-
cel had been in Rouen during the time of the
Maid's trial, and was also present at the end
of her life. M. Fabre, in concluding in his book
the translation of the testimonies of the long list
of witnesses given by him for the first time in
full, makes a great point of the universal concur-
rence of those who knew Joan of Arc as to her

THE REHABILITATION. 285

undoubted purity of person as well as of mind :
that fact is of the greatest importance as re-
garded the rehabilitation of the Maid of Orleans.
That is a subject which it is not now necessary
to do more than to allude to ; but to the French
judges in the time of the trial of the rehabilita-
tion, the fact of Joan of Arc being proved to
have been incontestably a virgin was of the
highest interest. It was reserved for a country-
man of Joan of Arc's (Du Bellay) to invent a
legend to disprove the fact ; and to the everlast-
ing shame of French literature, Voltaire adopted
the lying calumny in his licentious burlesque-
heroic poem, La Pucelle d'Orldans.

The sentence of rehabilitation which fills in
the translation a dozen of M. Fabre's pages,
was solemnly delivered in the great hall of the
archiepiscopal palace at Rouen. On that occa-
sion one of Joan of Arc's brothers, John, was
present. The sentence which was framed to
wipe away the iniquity of the judgment by
which the heroine had been condemned, was
delivered by the Archbishop of Rheims in the
presence of a vast concourse of people, among
whom were the Bishops of Paris and of Cou-
tances. Among other things ordered to honour
the memory of the Martyr, it was ordained that
after a sefmon preached on the spot where the
act of abjuration had taken place in the cemetery
of the Church of Saint Ouen, and also on the
site of the spot where had stood the stake and
pyre, two crosses should be erected.

Crosses were placed not only there, and in

286 JOAN OF ARC.

Rouen, but also on other spots. It is interest-
ing to know that one of these crosses can still
be seen in the Forest of Compiegne ; and it is
traditionally said that this cross at Compiegne
was placed there by no other than Dunois
himself. Both the crosses at Rouen have
disappeared centuries ago. Processions took
place at Rouen, and all was done that the
Church could do to wash out the indelible stain
of its action four-and-twenty years before the
time of the rehabilitation. In 1431, the clergy
of France, to please the English, had in the
name of orthodoxy, and with the tolerance of
the Pope, denounced Joan of Arc as 'a heretic
and idolatress.' In 1456, the same French
clergy, to please Charles VII., in the name
of religion and justice pronounced the memory
of Joan of Arc free from all taint of heresy
and of idolatry, and ordered processions and
erected crosses in her honour to keep her
memory fresh in the land.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

No. I.

JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND
ENGLISH HISTORY.

"T^VEN in France no thoroughly satisfactory
-»— ^ history exists of Joan of Arc, although a
large number of histories have been written.
Following is an enumeration of the most im-
portant.

As was natural while her countrymen were
divided into two camps, those writers who be-
longed to the side of the English attacked the
heroine, or rather her mission, with ill-placed
zeal. Of them Enguerrand de Monstrelet was
the most eminent.

Less well known chroniclers on the national
side, such as Philip de Bergame, an Augus-
tinian monk, on the other hand exaggerate the
deeds of the Maid. None of these chroniclers'
writings can be called histories of Joan of Arc.
Nor in the following (the sixteenth) century,
did such writers as Du Bellay and Haillon do
more than allude to Joan of Arc ; the first in
his Instructions sitr le fait de la guerre, and
the second in his book on the Affaires de
France.

290 JOAN OF ARC

Haillon had written disparagingly of the
heroine. It had the effect of raising the ire of
that learned scribe William Postel, who wrote
that the actions and renown of Joan of Arc
were as necessary to maintain as the Bible
itself With Postel the celebrated jurisconsult
Stephen Pasquier was quite in accord, and in
his work called Recherches sur la France, he
writes that ' never had any one saved France so
opportunely or so well as did this Maid.' In
1576 a book was published by the magistrates
of Orleans relating to the siege of their town,
in which all honour was given to the heroine
for the part she had taken in its delivery. In
the preface to that book the following sentiment
is expressed: — ^'It is a lamentable fact that the
Maid, respected by all other nations, the English
alone excepted, finds amongst her countrymen
writings to injure her memory by people who
are greater enemies to the honour of France
than those who are strangers to that country.'

It should be noted that . as early as the
year 1534 the famous early chronicler Poly-
dore Virgile, Italian by origin, wrote a volumin-
ous history of England in twenty-six books, and
treated the Maid's mission as one inspired by
divine influence, severely blaming her judges
for their inhuman conduct towards her.

In 1 6 10 a book was published discussing
the origin of the family of the Maid of Or-
leans ; a work of little value. In 1612 one
of the descendants of a brother of Joan of
Arc — Charles du Lys — published a slight work

IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 291

called Traild sonnnaire sur le nom, les armes,
la naissance el la parentd de la Pucelle et de
ses freres. In that same year the first history
of Joan of Arc was published, also by a de-
scendant of one of her brothers, John Hordal.
This book was in Latin ; it was entitled ' The
History of Joan of Arc, that very noble hero-
ine.' Soon after an elaborated work, based on
this book, was produced by Edmond Richer, a
doctor of theology in Paris.

The next account of the Maid of any length
occurs in Mdzarie's huge History of France,
It was published between 1643 and 1652. In
1 66 1 appeared a work called LHistoire du roi
Charles VII., contenant les choses mdmorables
de 1422 a 1466. It was in this work, which
was compiled by Denis Godefroy, that the
manuscripts of the Chronique de la Pucelle
were first printed. This chronicle concerns the
events which occurred between the years 1422
and 1429. Although not a complete history
of the heroine, it is the earliest account. It
was republished by Buchon, by Petitot, and by
Quicherat ; and it was consulted by Michelet
when writing his account of Joan of Arc. M.
Vallet de Viriville believes the Chronicle of the
Maiden to have been written by G. Cousinot,
Chancellor of the Duke of Orleans, who was
present at the siege of Orleans. At the close
of the seventeenth century was published a
history of France by a Jesuit priest named
David, in which there is some account of Joan
of Arc ; but David's history is more remarkable

292 JOAN OF ARC

for beinof a colossal list of falsehoods than
for any other merit.

We now arrive at the eighteenth century,
and still find no tolerable history of Joan of
Arc. In the year 1753 the Abb6 Longlet Du-
fresnoy published a Life of Joan of Arc ; it
is totally devoid of any merit.

In 1790 element de I'Averdy published
some notices relating to the trial and con-
demnation of Joan of Arc. These notices
led up to, and were followed by the publica-
tions of Petitot, Buchon, Michaud, and Pou-
goulat. At length, under the protection of the
Society of French History, the learned author
Quicherat produced his all - important works.
That distinguished historian and antiquarian
began his career under Charlet. In 1847 he
was appointed Professor of Archaeology, and
later, Director of the Institute of the Char-
ters. Between 1841 and 1850 he edited the
original documents relating to the trials of
Joan of Arc — those of her condemnation and
of her rehabilitation. Of these only a few
extracts had previously been published by M.
I'Averdy. The series edited by Quicherat
consists of five bulky tomes. Although when
Michelet was writing his history of France,
Quicherat's work had not yet been published,
the chronicler helped the historian by lending
Michelet the MSS. he was then annotating.

But to return to the earlier years of the
century. In 18 17, Lebrun des Charnettes
published a history of Joan of Arc in four

IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 293

volumes ; this history of the Maid was up to
that time the best that had been written. In
the same year there was published another
history of the heroine by M. Berriat Saint-
Prix. The best thing that work contains is
an itinerary of the different places at which
Joan of Arc passed the last three years of
her short existence. It is a useful list for
any one who wishes to visit the scenes con-
nected with her wonderful history.

The list commences with her flight to Neuf-
chateau in 1428, and the journey to Toul, and
continues as follows : —

1428.

May.

From Domremy to Burey-le-Petit, Vaucouleurs. Return
to Domremy.

1429.

February.

From Domremy to Vaucouleurs, Toul, Nancy, Saint
Nicolas-du-Port.
13th Return to Vaucouleurs, Saint Urbain, Auxerre.

March.

Gien, Sainte Catherine de Fierbois.
6th Chinon, Le Coudray en Touraine, Poitiers.

April.

Chinon, Tours, Saint Florent-les-Saumur.
2Sth Blois.

28th Rully pres de Checy.
29th Orleans.

294 JOAN OF ARC

May.

2nd Reconnaissance before Orleans.
4th Sortie on the road of Blois.
loth Return to Blois from Orleans.
To Tours and Loches.

June.

4th Selles-en-Berri.

6th Selles to Romorantin and Orleans,

nth Jargeau.

15th Meun-sur-Loire.

1 6th Beaugency.

1 8th Patay and Jauville.

19th Orleans, Saint Benoit-sur-Loire.

22nd Chateauneuf.

24th Departure from Orleans for Gien.

27th Departure from Gien in the direction of Montargis.

July.

I St Before Auxerre.

2nd Saint Florentin.

4th Saint Fal.

5th Before Troyes.

loth Entry into Troyes.

14th Bussy.

iSth Chalons-sur-Marne.

1 6th Sept Saulx.

1 6th Rheims.

2 1 St Saint Marcoul de Corbeny.

22 nd Vailly.
23rd Soissons.

29th Chateau Thierry.

August.

ist Montmirail-en-Brive.

2nd Provins. Sortie as far as Lamotte-de-Nangis, Bray-

sur-Seine.
5th Return towards Paris by Provins.

IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 295

August — continued.

7 th Coulommiers, Chateau Thierry,

loth La Fertd Milon.

nth Crespy-en-Valois.

1 2 th Lagny-le-Sec.

13th Dammartin and Thieux.

14th Baron, Montessilloy.

15th Crespy.

1 8th Compifegne, Senlis.

23rd Leave Compiegne.

26th Saint Denis.

September.

5th La Chapelle, near Paris.
8th Attack on the gate Saint Honore'.
gth Retreat from La Chapelle to Saint Denis.
14th Lagny-sur-Marne.

iSth Provins, Bray-sur-Seine. Passage of the river Yonne
at a ford near Sens Courtenay. Chateau Regnaut,
Montargis.
2 1 St Gien. Selles-en-Berri, Bourges.

October.
Meun-sur-Yevre, Bourges.

November.

Saint Pierre-le-Moutier.
9th Moulins.
24th La Charite'-sur-Loire, Meun-sur-Yevre. .

December

Jargeau.

1430.
January.

18th
19th

Bourges.
Orleans.

296 JOAN OF ARC

March.
3rd Sully.
28th Flight from Sully.

April.

15th Before Melun, Lagny, Sortie against Franquet d' Arras,
Senlis, Compifegne, Pont I'Eveque, Soissons, Com-
piegne.

May.

Lagny, Crecy, Compiegne.
28th Sortie from Compiegne against Margny and Clairvoix.

June, July.
At Beaulieu-en-Vermandois.

August, September, October, and November.

Beaurevoir, Arras, Drugy, near Saint Riquier, Le
Crotoy.

December.
Saint Valdry-sur-Somme, Eu, Dieppe, Rouen.

1431-

January, February, March, April, and May.

Rouen.

Sismondi devotes a part of the thirteenth
volume of his Hii>iory of France, pubHshed be-
tween 1 82 1 and 1844, to the Maid of Orleans.
He sums up the action of the Church to her
in these words : ' The Church was against the
Maid. All persons not delegated by her who
pretended to have supernatural powers were
accused of using magical arts.'

IN FRENCH HIS r OR Y. 297

Barante in his famous history of the Dukes
of Burgundy, pubHshed in 1824, gives a some-
what meagre and uninteresting account of Joan
of Arc. In 1821 appeared a Life of the heroine,
by JoUois, under whose direction the Httle monu-
ment was placed at Domremy in honour of the
Maid.

Alexandre Dumas has left among his num-
berless works a Life of Jchanne la Pucelle,
which is neither true history nor romance, but
a jumble of both, and is a work hardly worthy
the author, but there are some fine expressions
in the book. Dumas christened Joan of Arc
'The Christ of France.' Michelet in the fifth
volume of his Histoire de France published in
1 84 1, has written what will probably always be
considered the best account of the Maid. Al-
though only one hundred and thirty pages are
given to her life, these pages form a book in
themselves, and as a separate volume Miche-
let's Life of Joan of Arc has gone through a
large number of editions, the latest a handsome
illustrated one, published by Hachette in 1888.

One cannot help regretting that so great a
writer should allow his Anglophobism to appear
to such an extent in some of the pages of his
work. Michelet attacks the entire English nation
as if they had been individually and collectively
guilty of Joan of Arc's death. He even goes out
of his way to abuse English literature in this
amazing passage : ' De Shakespeare a Milton,
de Milton a Byron leur belle et simple littdrature
est sceptique, judaique, satanique.' It is pitiable

298 JOAN OF ARC

that so distinguished a writer as was Michelet
should pen such rubbish, but when a Frenchman
writes on the subject of Joan of Arc much should
be forgiven him. More serious than the abuse
of the English in Michelet's work are the inac-
curacies in his account of Joan of Arc. For in-
stance, he writes of the heroine watching the
English coast from her prison in the castle of
Crotoy. Her eyesight must have been tele-
scopic had she been able to do so, for eighty
miles of sea stretch between the site of Crotoy
and the English coast.

We next come to Henry Martin's history
of France. In this work a third part of the
sixth volume is consecrated to Joan of Arc,
whom he calls the ' Messiah of France.'

M. Wallon, however, is the writer who has
given France the most complete biography of her
heroine. This work, published by Hachette, had
in 1879 attained its fifth edition. A most sumptu-
ously illustrated edition appeared in 1876, one of
those splendidly illustrated books in which the
French press has no rival. That book is the
finest monument which has appeared to honour
the memory of the Maid of Orleans. Its illustra-
tions contain views of all places and memorials
connected with the heroine from the fifteenth to
the middle of the nineteenth century. The text
of Wallon's Life is, however, wanting in charm,
and it is, as M. Veuillot writes of it, ' un livre
sdrieuse et solide.' Sainte-Beuve has been still
more severe in his judgment on Wallon's book,
which he calls ' la faiblesse meme.'

IN ENGLISH HIS TOR Y. 299

Some slighter histories may be alluded to :
one by Lamartine, unworthy of the author and
the subject; another by M. Abel Desjardins ;^
a third by Villaume ; a fourth by M. Lafon-
taine. There is an interesting study by Simon
Luce on Joan of Arc's early years ; and last,
but certainly not least, the three works by M.
Joseph Fab re, relating to Joan of Arc's life,
her trial, her condemnation, and her rehabili-
tation. In the two last works the whole of
the long examination appears for the first
time, translated into French from the Latin —
documents invaluable to any one studying the
heroine's life.

In England little has been written in prose
relating to Joan of Arc that will be likely to
live. The early chroniclers were monstrously
unjust to her. It is enough to allude to the
lying and scurrilous abuse which such writers as
Robert Fabyan, in his chronicles on the history
of England and of France, published in 15 16,
heaped upon Joan of Arc. Hall's and Holin-
shed's chronicles, from which the author of the
First Part of King Henry VI. borrowed so
largely, sinned as deeply. Hall's authorities
among French writers were Monstrelet, Bou-
chet, Mayer, Argentan, Gile Corozet, and the
annals of France and Aquitaine — and of Eng-
lish writers, Fabyan, Caxton, John Harding,
Sir Thomas More, Basset, Balantyne, and the
Chronicle of London.

The annalist Stow, Hume's 'honest historian,'
is less unjust and bitter in his account of Joan

300 JOAN OF ARC

of Arc than are Hall and Holinshed. Thomas
Fuller appears not to have settled to his satis-
faction whether Joan of Arc was a witch or a
heroine.

In the seventeenth century we have only a
handful of poor writers who have treated more
or less badly of the Maid, such as Daniel,
Martyn, and Sir Richard Baker. It is not
until well into the eighteenth century that a
man of letters appears capable of giving an
unprejudiced and true history of the life of
Joan of Arc : this historian is Guthrie, who
published, between the years 1744 and 1751, a
long history of England. M. Darmesteter has
named this author 'a village Bossuet.'

Coming to our own days we have quite a
crowd of writers who have written with en-
thusiasm on the Maid of Domremy. It is
sufficient to name the most prominent of these
— Landor, Sir James Mackintosh, John Sterling,
Lord Mahon, De Quincey, and J. R. Green.

No. II.

JOAN OF ARC IN POETRY.

The Maid of Orleans (though a more poetical
figure cannot be found in all history) has not
been more fortunate at the hands of the poets
than at those of the historians.

To begin with her own countrywoman — for
the first who sang of Joan of Arc was appro-
priately enough a fellow-countrywoman — Chris-
tine de Pisan.

As the name indicates, this poetess was an
Italian by origin, but appears to have lived
most of her life in France. The latter part
she passed in a convent.

In the year 1429, Christine was sixty-seven
years old ; she had been living in some con-
ventual establishment for eleven years. Her
verses in praise of Joan of Arc — which num-
ber several hundred stanzas — were undoubtedly
written in the heroine's life-time. They are
supposed to have been the last lines she wrote.
These stanzas were completed shortly after the
coronation of Charles VII. A manuscript copy
of this poem exists in which Joan of Arc is
compared to Deborah, Judith, and Queen Esther.
These poems are curious and quaint in their old

302 JOAN OF ARC

French expressions, but they are quite unread-
able for any but French students well versed in
the literature of the fifteenth century.

In 1440, Martin le France, provost of the
Cathedral of Lausanne, bestows some lines on
Joan of Arc in his poem called the Champian
des dames. In 1487, Martial de Paris published,
under the title of Vigiles du roi Charles VII.,
a rhymed translation of Jean Chartrier's chro-
nicle of that monarch.

Villon has left some charming lines in which
he has placed the heroine's name as it were on
a string of pearls ; they occur in his exquisite
ballad 'Dames du temps jadis,' and, as it would
be profanation to try and translate, I give them
here in the original : —

' La Reine blanche comme un lys
Qui chantait h. voix de sirfene,
Berthe au grand pied, Bietris, Allis,
Haremburge qui tint le Maine,
Et Jeanne la bonne Lorraine
Qu' Anglais brulerent k Rouen,
Oil sont-ils, vierge souveraine ?
Mais oil sont les neiges d'antan ? '

Long before those beautiful lines were
written by Villon, a play called Le Mysiere du
Siege d'OrUans had been acted. As early as
the year 1435 this performance appears to have
taken place on the anniversary of the deliver-
ance of the city, and the dramatic piece was
probably acted on the return of that day for
many a year after. This was one of the so-
called ' Miracle Plays,' popular both in France

IN POETRY. 303

and in England at that period. The author
or authors of the play are not known.

Some one has taken the trouble to count
the number of lines: they amount to 20,529,
and are all in dialogue !

Whether the unfortunate audience had to
sit all through this performance one does not
know. One hopes, for their sake, that, like a
Chinese play or a Bayreuth performance of
Wagner's operas, the performance was ex-
tended over a number of days.

Joan is naturally the heroine throughout ;
she first appears as the bearer of the Divine
mandate to drive the enemy from off the sacred
soil of France. The play closes with her tri-
umphant return to Orleans after the victory of
Patay. As far as the mission is concerned the
play is historically correct, and it is in this
respect an improvement on Shakespeare and
Schiller. There is a point of great interest
concerning this piece which, so far as we know,
has never been noticed — namely, the fact of one
of its acts being almost identical with one in
the First Part of King Hemy VI. In the mys- '
tery play the scene of this act is laid before
Orleans. The French are determined to de-
fend their city to the last ; the English are
determined on taking it. We are in front of
the besieged and the besiegers. Salisbury has
entered the Tournelles, and he looks out over
the city from a window in the tower. Glans-
dale (' Glassidas ') stands beside him, and says
to Salisbury, ' Look to your right, and to your

304 JOAN OF ARC

left — it looks like a terrestrial paradise, all this
country flowing with milk and honey ; you will
soon be its master.' Salisbury expresses his
satisfaction at the sight of all the plunder at
his feet, and gives vent to some very sanguin-
ary sentiments about the French ; he will slay
every one in the place — all the men, ' et leurs
femmes et leurs enfants. Personne je n'^par-
gnerai.' But scarcely has he been able to give
vent to this terrible threat when his head is
carried off by a cannon ball fired from the
town. The English cry out 'Ha! Hay!
maudite journde ! "

Earl Salisbury is carried out stiff and stark.
Talbot and the other English officers now vow
vengeance on the French in these words : —

' Ha, Sallebery, noble coraige !
Ta mort nous sera vendue chfere.
Jamais un tel de ton paraige,
Ne se trouvera en frontifere.'

If we turn to Scene 4 of the first act of
Shakespeare's First Part of King Henry VI., we
shall find almost the same scene enacted. -

Enter on the turrets. Lord Salisbury, Tal-
bot, etc. Salisbury, after welcoming Talbot, calls
on Sir William Glansdale to look down into the
town, and while conversing the shot is fired which
kills Salisbury. After the death of Salisbury,
Talbot vows vengeance on the French, and says
he will

' Nero-like
Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.'

IN POETR Y. 305

There can be little doubt that whoever wrote
the First Part of King Henry VI. had seen the
mystery play of the Siege of Orleans acted in
that town. This brings one to the much de-
bated question, ' Who wrote the First Part of
King Henry VI. ? '

There can be no doubt that Shakespeare
had studied both Hall's and Holinshed's chro-
nicles. The former styled Joan of Arc 'a mon-
strous woman,' and also suggested that fine
passage beginning ' Why ring not the bells
throughout the town ? ' We are of those who
would wish to believe that our greatest poet
had but little hand in delineating the French
heroine of all time as she is described in Piall
and in Holinshed, and to believe that he left
the play — originally written, we think, by Greene
— very much as he found it. It is not in-
deed till the fifth act, when Joan is represented
as a magician, and when the grotesqueness of
the author passes even the limits of burlesque,
that we fail to see a shred of the poet's skill.
Nothing in Shakespeare is at once so unpoeti-
cal as well as so untrue to history as the last
scene, in which Joan repudiates her father. If
it is by Shakespeare — which we cannot believe —
it must have been one of the very earliest of
his historical plays ; and, with Ben Jonson, we
could wish that the passages referring to the
Maid of Orleans had been freely blotted.

The era of the Renaissance brought with
it in France no poets to sing of Joan of Arc,
and we only find — besides the mystery play of

3o6 JOAN OF ARC

the Siege of Orleans — one literary work relating
to her at this period ; that is a five-act tragedy
written by a Jesuit priest named Fronton du
Due, a gloomy piece, which was acted in 1580
at Pont-a-Mousson. In the beginning of the
seventeenth century appeared another tragedy
by a Norman squire named Virey : it was
titled Jeanne d' Arques, dite la Pucelle d'OrUans.
This very mellifluous production was published
at Rouen in the year 1600.

Another tragedy on the same subject ap-
peared in 1642, written by the Abbe d'Aubignac
— a very pedantic play. -

Next appears an ' heroic poem ' by Chape-
lain, published in 1656, entitled La Pucelle.
Great things had been expected of this poem,
but it fell very flat after a long expectancy of
thirty years when it at length saw the light.
Chapelain's ridiculous poem gave the idea to
Voltaire of his licentious one.

Even Voltaire was ashamed of his work,
and long denied that he was its author. As a
very slight reparation for his deed, he writes
of Joan of Arc in his Essai siir les viceiirs et
r esprit des natives, that the heroine would have
had altars built in the days when altars were
erected by primitive men to their liberators.

Southey, referring to Voltaire's infamous pro-
duction, said, ' I never committed the crime of
reading Voltaire's Pucelle.'

After all, Voltaire did infinitely more harm
to himself by writing his poem La Pucelle
than he did to the memory of the Maid of

IN POETRY. 307

Orleans, for it revealed to the world what an
amount of depravity was mixed up within that
wonderful shrewd mind, and how it weakened its
genius. The great Revolution which swept so
many shams away with its terrible breath, ven-
erated, to its honour be it said, both the spirit
of humanity displayed by the poet-philosopher
and the spirit of patriotism that possessed the
virgin heroine and martyr.

In 1795 appeared Southey's heroic play on
Joan of Arc. That drama is more a glorification
of the principles of the French Revolution than
of Joan of Arc. There is no attempt made to
follow out her history. The play contains a love
episode due entirely to the youthful poet's im-
agination, but it contains fine passages as well,
and seems to us to have merited more praise
from posterity than it has received.

Schiller's play, like Southey's, sins grievously
as far as historical truth is concerned. The Ger-
man poet wishes, it seems, to remove the bad
impression made by Voltaire's poem. The play
was first performed on the stage at Weimar in
1801 ; and the Jungfrait. von Orleans met with
considerable success. It contains noble lines,
but is historically a mere travesty of the life and
death of the heroine.

In 1 81 5 Casimir Delavigne wrote, as a coun-
terblast to the double invasion that France had
just undergone, his well known Messeniennes to
the honour of the French heroine. These poems
had a great success, the second being the most
admired ; but they are now forgotten. Two

3o8 JOAN OF ARC

other dramatic poets followed in Delavigne's
steps : these were d'Avrigni and Soumet. By
the former appeared, in 1819, a tragedy in five
acts and in verse ; it was performed at the
Thdatre Franqais. Soumet's play was also
acted ; it almost equals d'Avrigni's in length
and tediousness.

Besides the above tragedies which had, as
the French term it, the honour of seeing the
light of the footlights, Desnoyers wrote a play
on Joan of Arc in 1841, and was followed by
a series of other writers in verse and in prose
— Caze, Dumolard, Maurin, Gramar, Hddouville,
Millot, Lequesme, Crepot, Puymaigre, Porchat,
Haldy, Renard, Jouve, Cozic, Daniel Stern,
Bousson de Maviet, Constant Materne. All
the above wrote plays and tragedies on the sub-
ject of Joan of Arc between the years 1805
and 1862. Daniel Stern was the only author-
ess who composed a drama in honour of the
heroine.

While all this galimatias of dramas has
sunk into the limbo which waits for all such
work, Villon's two lines remain as bright as
the day on which, four centuries ago, he wrote
them : —

'Jeanne la bonne Lorraine,
Qu' Anglais brulferent k Rouen.'

Some plays on the subject of the Maid of
Orleans also appeared in Italy and in England,
but none is likely to retain a long hold of
the stage. The drama of Joan of Arc's life has

IN POETRY. 309

inspired two of the greatest masters of music
of our day. Verdi set a tragedy by Solera to
music in 1845, and in 1869 Gounod wrote some
music for a piece by Jules Barbier, which was
performed with some success at the Gaite
Thd^tre in Paris in 1873.

What will always remain an unfortunate fact
in the history of modern literature is that the
two greatest minds of England and France
have written on the subject of the Maid of
Orleans lines which — for their fame — it were
well they had never written. Whether Shake-
speare composed the First Part of King Henry
VI. may for long remain a disputed point, but
he is responsible for that play, and consequently
for the manner in which Joan of Arc is treated
in it. No genius can pardon or excuse the
abuse and filth with which Voltaire bespatters
the immortal memory of the glorious Maid of
Orleans.

Voltaire's attack on Church and State had
much to excuse them in his day ; but that
on Joan of Arc was entirely unwarranted, un-
called for, and unpardonable. Still, could Joan
have known the offence and the offender, we
have no doubt she would have forgiven the
ribaldry and the ribald as freely as she forgave
all her enemies.

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3i6 JOAN OF ARC.

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3i8 JOAN OF ARC.

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traduit du latin et publie integralement pour la premiere fois

en franijais d'aprfes les documents manuscrits et originaux.'

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Arc, 8 mai 1857.' Orleans, 1857. 8vo.

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FRENCH BIBLIOGRAPHY. 319

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i6mo.

ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOAN
OF ARC.

Bartlett, David W., 'The Life of Joan of Arc' Auburn, New

York, 1855. i2mo.
Blake, Robert, ' Joan of Arc' A poem. London, 1876. 8vo.
Bray, Mrs., 'Life of Joan d'Arc' London, 1874. 8vo.

Caddy, Mrs. Florence, ' Footsteps of Jeanne d'Arc : A Pilgrim-
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Charles, Mrs. E., 'Joan of Arc : A Story of the Fifteenth Century.'
London, 1879. 8vo.

'Commines, Philip de, The Memoirs of 2 vols. London, 1855.
i2mo.

Davenport- Adams, W. H., 'The Maid of Orleans.' London, 1889.

8vo.
Delepierre, Joseph Octave, ' Historical Difficulties and Contested

Events.' London, 1868. 8vo.
Doran, John, 'Knights and their Days.' London, 1856. Svo.

Fuller, Thomas, 'The Holy State and the Profane State.' London,
1840. 8vo. pp. 341.

Guizot, F. P. G., ' The History of France from the Earliest Times to
the year 1789.' Translated by R. Black. London, 1870. 8vo.

Jameson, Mrs. A., 'Lives of Celebrated Sovereigns.' London,

1834. i2mo.
'Joan of Arc: The Story of a Noble Life.' Edinburgh, 1871.

i2mo.

Maceroni, Cecilia, ' Illustrations from the History of the Maid of
Orleans.' London, 1854. 8vo.

Owen, Emily, ' Heroines of History.' London, 1877. 8vo.

320

JOAN OF ARC. 321

Parr, Harriet, 'The Life and Death of Jeanne d'Arc' London,

1866. 8vo.
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1869. Bvo.
PauH, Rheinhold, ' Pictures of Old England.' Translated by E. C.

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1865. 8vo.

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R., C. L., 'The Story of Joan of Arc' London, i860. i6mo.

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1796. 4to.
Stanhope, P. H. (5th Earl), 'The Life of Joan of Arc' London,

1853. 8vo.
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Stothart, A. E., ' Joan of Arc' London, 1874. 8vo.

'The Wonderful Exploits of the Maid of Orleans.' Falkirk, 1815.

i2mo.
Tuckey, Janet, ' Life of Joan of Arc' London, 1880. 8vo.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON JOAN OF ARC.

Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xlvii. p. 284 (1841).

Dublin Review, vol. Ix. p. 118 (1866).

Dublin University Magazine, vol. Ixxxix. p. 417 (1876).

Eticyclopadia Britannica, Article, ' Joan of Arc'

Temple Bar, vol. xxi. p. 380 (1867).

Fortnightly Review, vol. vi. p. 632 (1866).

Harper's Magazine, vol. Ixiii. p. 91 (1881).

X

INDEX

INDEX.

Adam, De I'lsle, commander of the
Burgundian soldiers in Paris, 107

Albret, Sire d', assists Joan of Arc at
the siege of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier,

"S

Alen^on, Duke of, entrusted with the
command of the expedition on the
Loire, 73, 74 ; his personal safety
vouchsafed by Joan of Arc, 76 ;
accompanies the King to Rheims,
85 ; testifies to the military talents
of Joan, 95 ; gives evidence at the
trial for her rehabilitation, 265

Alessee, John, canon at Rouen, as-
sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
147

Alnwick, William, Bishop of Nor-
wich, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 148

Anjou, Duke of, his sympathy with
Joan of Arc, 30

Anjou, Rene d', ill

Arc, origin of the name, 4

Arc, Isabeau d' (mother of Joan of
Arc), her influence upon her daugh-
ter, 5 ; at the trial for rehabilitation,
256

Arc, Jacques d' (father of Joan of
Arc), his social position, 4 ; his
death, 255

Arc, Joan of. See Joan of Arc

Arc, John d' (brother of Joan of Arc),
37 ; at the trial for her rehabilita-
tion, 256. 285

Arc, Peter d' (brother of Joan of Arc),
37 ; taken prisoner with his sister,
125 ; at the trial for rehabilitation,
256

Armagnac, Thibauld d'. Sire de
Thermes, 40 ; at the trial for the
rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 274

Arnolin, Henri, priest, 260

Arras, Bishop of, 106

Arundel, Earl of, threatens the town
of Compiegne, 122

Aubert, John, burgher of Orleans, 273

Aubignac, Abb^ d', his tragedy on
Joan of Arc, 306

Auguy, Raoul, canon at Rouen, as-
sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,

147
Aulon, John d', esquire of Joan of Arc,

37, 56, 57 ; rescues his mistress, 115;

taken prisoner with her, 125, 134 ;

gives evidence at the trial for her

rehabilitation, 257, 271
Aunoy, Arnoult d', Celibat of the

Monastery of Saint Urban-les-Join-

ville, 21
Averdy, Clement de 1', 292
Avet, John de Saint, Bishop of Av-

ranches, assessor at the trial of Joan

of Arc, 145
Avrigni, D', dramatic poet, 308
Aymeri, William, doctor of theology,

33

Bailly, Nicolas, scrivener, 260
Baker, Sir Richard, English writer,

300
Bar, Count de, 3
Barante, historian, 297
Barbier, Robert, canon of Rouen,

assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,

147

3=3

BAR

INDEX.

CAU

Barbier, Jean, King's Advocate, 224 ;
at the trial for the rehabilitation of
Joan of Arc, 263

Barbier, Jules, 309

Barrey, John, godfather of Joan of
Arc, 258

Basin, Thomas, Bishop of Lisieux,
quoted for Joan of Arc's belief in
the reality of her visions, 8

Basset, John, canon, assessor at the
trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Baubribosc, William de, canon at
Rouen, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 147

Baudricourt, Robert de, 9 ; his first
interview with Joan of Arc, 12 ;
second interview, 14; presents her
with his sword, 21

Beaucharnys, John, burgher of Or-
leans, 273

Beaucharnys, fetronille, 274

Beaucroix, Simon, at the trial for
rehabilitation, 272

Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Win-
chester. See Winchester.

Beaupere, John, canon at Besan9on,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
145 ; examines and cross-questions
her, 158; seeks to effect her ab-
juration, 227 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 276

Bedford, Duke of, sends Fastolfe to
Suffolk's assistance at Jargeau, 75 ;
takes refuge in the fortress of Vin-
cennes, 100 ; appeals for help to the
Duke of Burgundy and the Bishop
of Winchester, loi ; advances from
Paris, 103 ; returns there, 105 ;
leaves for Normandy, 107 ; comes
to terms with the Duke of Bur-
gundy, 1 14 ; invokes the aid of
the Church against Joan of Arc,
130

Bellarme, Martin, Dominican priest,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,

143
Bellier, William, bailiff of Troyes, 89
Bellow, J., cited, 150

Benel, Abbot of Courcelles, assessor

at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148
Bergame, Philip de, Augustinian

monk, 289
Berwoit, John, attendant on Joan of

Arc, 149, 157
Bibliography of Joan of Arc: French,

311 ; English, 320
Boissel, Guerold de, 225
Bonart, Herve, canon at Orleans, 274
Bonnet, John, priest, 282
Bonnet, Simon, Bishop of Senlis, 32
Bordez, Andre, canon at Rouen, 274
Boucher, Charlotte, bedfellow of Joan

of Arc, at the trial for rehabilitation,

273
Boucher, James, host of Joan of Arc

in Orleans, 52
Boucher, Mary le, 122
Bouchier, Peter, priest, 282
Boulogne, Count of, accompanies

Charles VII. to Rheims, 85
Boussac, Marshal de (Saint-Severe),

40. 47. 58, 75

Boyleau, Joan, 273

BruUot, John, canon at Rouen, as-
sessor at trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Buchon, 291, 292

Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, his trim-
ming conduct after the coronation
at Rheims, 102; comes to terms
with Bedford, 114; intrigues to
obtain possession of Corapiegne,
121 ; hands over Joan of Arc to the
English, 137

Cabu, Gentien, burgher of Orleans,

273
Cagny, Perceval de, cited, 6G
Calixtus III., Pope, sanctions the re-
habilitation of Joan of Arc, 254
Canelier, John, burgher of Orleans,

273
Castiglione, Zanon de, Bishop of

Lisieux, assessor at the trial of Joan

of Arc, 14s, 213
Cauchon, Peter, Bishop of Beauvais,

326

CAU

INDEX.

COP

io6 ; his early career, 131 ; offered
preferment by Winchester, 132 ;
ransoms Joan of Arc for the En-
glish, 133; resolves that her trial
shall take place in Rouen, 141 ;
constitution of his tribunal, 143 ;
his policy at the beginning of
the trial, 150, 151 ; his opening
speech, 153 ; his examination of the
Maid, 154 et seq.; fails to attach
guilt to her in the public trial, 187 ;
subjects her to a secret examination
in prison, 18S ; contents of his
letter of indictment to the Uni-
versity of Paris, 208 ; tries to extort
her submission in illness, 215 ; de-
cides to put her to the torture, 221;
commended for his zealous conduct,
226 ; seeks to effect her abjuration,
227 ; absolves her from excom-
munication, 235 ; interviews her
in prison, 238 ; hands her over to
the secular powers, 248

Caval, canon, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 282

Censurey, Peter de la, canon at
Rouen, 274

Chapelain, his ' heroic poem ' on the
Maid, 306

Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, seeks
an interview with Joan of Arc, 17

Charles V. of France, I

Charles VI. of France, I

Charles the Dauphin (afterwards
Charles VII.), protests against the
dismemberment of France, i ; his
wretched condition at the begin-
ning of 1429, 23; interview with
Joan of Arc at Chinon, 28 ; pre-
sents her with a suit of armour,
37 ; meets her after the delivery of
Orleans, 70 ; sets out for Rheims,
83 ; is crowned there, 91 ; en-
nobles Joan, 98 ; vacillating con-
duct, 102 ; marches on Paris,
104; retreats to Gien, 114; takes
measures for the rehabilitation of

the Maid, 253 ; real object in doing
so, 271

Charles, Simon, Master of the Re-
quests, 263

Charlet, 292

Charnettes, Lebrun les, historian,
292

Charron, William le, burgher of
Orleans, 272

Chartres, Regnault de. Archbishop of
Rheims, 32 ; accompanies Joan of
Arc to Blois, 46 ; tries to thwart her
mission, 55 ; meets Charles VII. on
his entry into Rheims, 90 ; makes
a truce with the English, iii ; an-
nounces the capture of the Maid to
the citizens of Rheims, 128

Chartrier, William, Bishop of Paris,
appointed a commissioner for the
rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 255

Chatillon, Archdeacon of Evreux,
assessor at the trial of Joan of
Arc, 149 ; his sermon before Joan,
219

Chauvigny, Seigneur de, accompanies
Charles VII. to Rheims, 85

Chinon, the Castle of, 22

Clermont, Count of, accompanies
Charles VII. to Rheims, 85, in

Coaraze, 40

Colin, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259

Colin, John, priest, 262

Colles, William, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 144, 151; at the
trial for rehabilitation, 279

Columbel, canon, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 148

Compaing, Peter, canon at Orleans,
274

Compi^gne, the town of, 122

Contes, Louis de, page of Joan, 37,
268

Conti, De, Abbot of Sainte Catherine,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
148

Coppequesne, Nicolas, canon at
Rouen, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 147, 224

327

COR

INDEX.

ERA

Cormeilles, canon, assessor at the

trial of Joan of Arc, 148
Coulant, 40
Coulon, John, burgher of Orleans,

273

Coulon, Guillemette de, 273

Courcelles, Thomas de, canon, asses-
sor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 145,
150, 202, 224, 235 ; nature of his
evidence at the trial for rehabilita-
tion, 275

Cousinot, G., Chancellor of the Duke
of Orleans, 291

Clique, Peter de, Prior of Sigy, asses-
sor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
148

Crotoy, I,e, importance of, to the
English in the fifteenth century,

139

Crotoy, canon, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148

Culan, Louis, Admiral de, accom-
panies Charles VII. to Rheims, 85

Cusquel, Peter, burgher of Rouen,
284

Dacier, Abbot of Saint Corneille of
Compiegne, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148, 222

Daniel, English writer, 300

Darmesteter, M., cited, 300

Daron, Peter, attorney, 283

Daval, William, priest, at the trial
for rehabilitation, 281

David, Jesuit priest, 291

De Champcoux, John, burgher of
Orleans, 273

De Commy, Cosm^, burgher of Or-
leans, 273

Delachambre, William, assessor at the
trial of Joan of Arc, 149 ; at the
trial for rehabilitation, 278 ; Joan
of Arc's doctor, ib.

Delavigne, Casimir, his poems on
Joan of Arc, 307

Desjardins, Abel, biographer of Joan
of Arc, 299

Desnoyers, dramatist, 308

Despres, John, 257

Domremy, birthplace of Joan of
Arc, 3

Du Bellay, French writer, cited, 285,
289

Dubesert, canon at Rouen, assessor at
the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 ; at
the trial for rehabilitation, 282

Duchemin, canon, assessor at the
trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Du Due, Fronton, his tragedy on
Joan of Arc, 306

Du Fay, Geoffrey, knight, 261

Dufresnoy, Abbe I,onglet, his Life of
Joan of Arc, 292

Du Lys, Charles, descendant of the
Arc family, 290

Dumas, Alexandre, his Life of Joan
of Arc, 297

Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, com-
mander of the French troops in
Orleans, 36, 40 ; interview with
Joan of Arc at Reuilly, 5 1 ; goes to
Blois to bring up reinforcements,
54 ; attacks the Tournelles, 62, 75 ;
testifies to the military talents of
Joan, 95 ; at the trial for rehabilita-
tion, 266

Durement, Abbot of Fecamp, assessor
at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Edward III. of England, i

Emenyart, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 149, 212

Epinal, Gerardin d', village com-
panion of Joan of Arc, 89, 258

Epinal, Isabellette d', friend of Joan
of Arc, 258

Erard, William, canon of Beauvais,
assessor at the trial of Joan of
Arc, 149 ; opposed to applying
the torture to her, 224 ; preaches
on the occasion of Joan's abjura-
tion, 230, 232

Erault, John, 35

328

ESB

INDEX.

GUI

Esbalny, Jacques 1', burgher of Or-
leans, 273

Estelin, Beatrix d', godmother of Joan
of Arc, 258

Estivet, John d', surnamed ' Bene-
dicite,' at trial of Joan of Arc, 143

Estouteville, Cardinal d', 254

Fabre, Joseph, historian, cited, 164,
258, 266, 284 ; his works on Joan
of Arc, 299

Fabyan, Robert, English writer, 299

Farciaux, Robert de, canon, 274

Fastolfe, Sir John, at the siege of
Orleans, 43 ; sent to Jargeau to
reinforce Suffolk, 75 ; joins forces
with Talbot, 78 ; defeated at the
battle of Patay, 80 ; disgraced, 100

Fauconbridge, clerk of the French
Parliament, quoted, 68

Fave, Jean, Master of Requests, 284

Feuillet, Gerard, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 146

Fevre, Le, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 149

Fiexvet, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 149

Flavigny, William de, governor of
Compiegne, 121, 123, 124 ; his sup-
posed treachery towards Joan, 127

Fontaine, John de la, at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 143 ; secretly examines
her in prison, 188 ; flies from the
wrath of Couchon, 194

Fournier, Jean, priest, testifies in
favour of Joan of Arc, 16

France, state of, in 1420, I

France, Martin le, 302

Franquet d' Arras, English freebooter,
captured liy Joan of Arc, 120

Fremiet, sculptor, no

Frique, Abbot of Bee, assessor at the
trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Fuller, Thomas, 300

Fumeux, Jean le, priest, testifies to
the piety of Joan of Arc, 17 ; at the
trial for rehabilitation, 262

Gargrave, Sir Thomas, mortally
wounded in the attack on Orleans,
42

Garin, canon, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148

Garivel, Francis, at the trial for re-
habilitation, 264

Gastinel, canon, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 148, 224

Gaucourt, Raoul de, Grand Master of
the King's Household, 40 ; closes
the Burgundy Gate at Orleans
against Joan of Arc, 61, 75 ; at
the trial for her rehabilitation, 268

Gerard, Henriette, friend of Joan of
Arc, 258

Giresme, Nicolas de, knight of Rhodes,
in the attack on the Tournelles,
64

Glansdale, Sir William, succeeds
Salisbury in the command of the
English forces before Orleans, 42,
59 ; drowned in the Loire, 65

Gloucester, Duke of, English Pro-
tector, loi

Godart, Raoul, canon at Rouen, 274

Godefroy, Denis, 291

' Godon,' the French sobriquet for the
English, 61

Gounod, 309

Grasset, Peter, governor of La Charite,
116

Graverent, John, Dominican priest
and Grand Inquisitor of France, at
the trial of Joan of Arc, 143

Graville, De, 58

Green, J. R. , 300

Greene, Robert, dramatist, 305

Gris, John, English knight, personal
attendant on Joan of Arc, 149,

157
Grouchet, Richard de, priest, 282
Guerdon, assessor at the trial of Joan

of Arc, 149
Guesdon, Laurent, clerk and advocate

to the lay court of Rouen, 284
Guillemeth, playmate of Joan of Arc,

259

329

GUT

INDEX.

JOA

Guthrie, his Life of Joan of Arc,
300

Haillon, French writer, 2S9

Ilaiton, William, English priest, as-
sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
148, 222, 224

Hall, English historian, quoted, for
the delivery of Orleans, 66, 299

Harcourt, Christophe d'. Bishop of
Castres, confessor of Chirles VII.,

71
Henry II. of England, 25
Henry III. of England, his death at

Chinon, 25
Henry V. of England, his position

in P'rance in 1420, i, 39
Henry VI. of England, 100, 137
Herrings, the battle of the, 44
Ililaire, John, burgher of Orleans,

273
Hire, La, 40 ; persuaded to break off

swearing by Joan of Arc, 46 ; assists

in the attack on the Tournelles. 62 ;

leads the van at the battle of Patay,

80 ; accompanies Charles VII. to

Rheims, 85
Ilolinshed, English writer, 299
Hordal, John, descendant of the Arc

family, 291
Houppeville, Nicolas de, doctor of

theology, 278
Hue, Peter, burgher of Orleans, 273

Illiers, Florent d', 53

Ingres, his picture of Joan of Arc,
92

Inquisition, the, resolve to prosecute
Joan of Arc as a sorceress and idola-
tress, 130

Jacquard, playmate of Joan of Arc,

259
Jacquier, native of Domremy, 261
Jacquier, Guillot, 262

Joan of Arc, her birth and parent-
^6^1 3 ; Iisr amiable character,
5 ; devotion to religious duties,
6 ; first visions, 7 ; her belief
in their reality, 8 ; interviews with
Baudricourt, 11, 14; visits Duke
Charles of Lorraine, 17 ; her popu-
larity at Vaucouleurs, 18; her equip-
ment, 19 ; sets out for Chinon,
20 ; opposed by La Tremoille, 24 ;
arrival at Chinon, 25 ; interview
with the King, 26 ; favourably
impresses him, 29 ; trains herself
in military exercises, 30 ; examined
at Poitiers before the French Parlia-
ment, 32 ; her mission sanctioned,
35 ; prepares her standard, 37 ;
arrives at Blois, 46 ; despatches a
letter to the Duke of Bedford, 47 ;
her interview with Dunois before
Orleans, 51 ; enthusiastic entry into
the city, 52 ; summons the English
to surrender, 53 ; meets Dunois
with the relieving forces, 55 ; her
first engagement, 57 ; carries the
Bastille des Augustins, 59 ; pro-
phesies she will be wounded, 60 ;
leads the attack on the Tournelles,
62 ; wounded, 63 ; rallies the waver-
ing French, 64; c mpels the English
to raise the siege, 65 ; returns to
Chinon, 69 ; urges Charles VII. to
go to Rheims, 70 ; leads the ex-
pedition on the Loire, 73 ; storms
and takes Jargeau, 75 ; gains the
battle of Patay, 80 ; sets out for
Rheims with Charles, 84 ; the
enforced halt before Troyes, 85 ;
expresses her fear of treachery, 89 ;
at the King's coronation in Rheims
cathedral, 91 ; her military talents,
94 ; her humane conduct in war,
96 ; ennobled by Charles, 98 ; ad-
vises the latter to march on Paris,
lOT ; writes to the Duke of Bur-
gundy for assistance, 102 ; resolves
to attempt to take Paris, 107 ; her
impetuous onslaught, 109 ; again

330

JOA

INDEX.

LEM

wounded, l lo ; deposits her armour
and arms in the fane of Saint
Denis, 113; assaults and captures
the fortress of Saint Pierre-le-
Moutier, 115; fails to take La
Charite, 117; her simplicity and
freedom from egotism, ib. ; captures
an English freebooter and his band
at Lagny, 120; received with joy
in Compi^gne, 122 ; attacks the
Eurgundians at Margny, 124 ;
driven back from Clairvoix, 124;
taken prisoner, 125 ; removed to
the castle of Beaulieu, in Picardy,
129 ; handed over to Peter
Cauchon, 133 ; attempts to escape,
135, 136 ; delivered to the English,
138 ; taken to Rouen, 141 ; bar-
barously treated, 142; demands that
her judges should be equally divi-
ded in nationality, 153; her answers
to Cauchon and Beaupere, 154 sq. ;
secretly interrogated in prison, iSS ;
continued maltreatment, 196 ; the
twelve articles on which her con-
demnation was founded, 207 ; falls
ill in prison, 214 ; again interrogated
by Cauchon, 215 ; threatened with
torture, 221 ; condemned by the
University of Paris, 225 ; her ab-
juration, 228 sq. ; discards her male
attire, 236 ; roughly treated by her
guard, ib. ; her forgiving nature,
239 ; is apprised of her fate, 243 ;
upbraids Cauchon, ib. ; confesses
and receives the sacrament, 244 ;
pardons Loiseleur, 246 ; handed
over lo the secular powers, 24S ;
implores pardon for her enemies,
ib. ; her martyrdom, 250 ; the trial
for her rehabilitation, 253 sq.

Jocab, Dominic, curate, 261

Jolivet, Abbot of St. Michel's Mount,
Normandy, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148

Jollois, historian, 297

Jonqualt, Peter, burgher at Orleans,
273

Jonson, Ben, cited for the authorship
of the First Part of JHn^ Hcniy

VI; 304
Jouvenel des Ursins, John, Archbishop
of Rheims, appointed commissioner
for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc,

255
Joyart, Mengette, friend of Joan of
Arc, 258

Labb^, Abbot of Saint George de
Bocherville, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148

Laclopss^, Bertrand, thatcher, 261

Ladvenu, Martin, Dominican priest,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
149; ciled for her brutal treatment
in prison, 238 ; sent to apprise her of
her fate, 243 ; receives her confes-
sion and administers the sacrament,
244 ; attends her to execution, 245 ;
at the trial for her rehabilitation,
280

La Fontaine, biographer of Joan of
Arc, 299

Laiguise, John, Bishop of Troyes,
offers to capitulate Troyes to King
Charles VIL, 88

Lamartine, 299

Landor, Walter Savage, 300

Langart, John de, godfather of Joan
of Arc, 258

Laval, Count Guy de, cited, 73 ; ac-
companies the King to Rheims, Sj

Laxart, Durand, cousin of Joan of
Arc, 1 1 ; at the trial for rehabilita-
tion, 261

Lebourg, William, prior, assessor at
the trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Le Cuin, playmate of Joan of Arc,
259

Ledoux, canon, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148, 224

Le France, Martin, French poet, 300

Le Fevre, Jean, bishop, at the trial for
rehabilitation, 276

Lemaitre, Husson, coppersmith, 275

33'

LEM

INDEX.

MIC

Lemaitre, John, Dominican prior,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
I43> 157. 188, 224

Lenozoles, John de, priest, 282

Lepage, Bastien, his picture of Joan
of Arc, 12

Leroux, abbot of Jumieges, assessor
at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Leroy, canon, assessor at the trial of
Joan of Arc, 148

Lessarmentrer, Mauger, chief torturer
of Rouen, at the trial for rehabilita-
tion, 282

Ligny, John de, 128 ; transfers Joan
of Arc to his castle of Beaurevoir,
135 ; delivers her into the hands of
the Duke of Burgundy, 137 ; taunts
her in prison, 142

Lisle, Lancelot de, at the siege of
Orleans, 43

Loheac, Seigneur de, accompanies
Charles VIL to Rheims, 85

Lohier, John, threatened by Cauchon
for his sympathy with Joan of Arc,
199

Loiseleur, Nicolas, canon of Rouen,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
146; his infamous conduct, ib.,
197 ; his remorse, 199 ; intent on
torture, 222, 224 ; seeks to effect
her abjuration, 227, 232, 235 ; asks
pardon of her, 246

Lombard, Jean, professor of theology,

33
Longueil, Richard de. Bishop of Cou-
tances, appointed a commissioner
for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc,

255

Luce, Simeon, cited, 14, 299

Luillier, John, at the trial for re-
habilitation, 272

Luxembourg, John of, 106

Luxembourg, Louis of, Bishop of
Th^rouanne, in command of the
English soldiers in Paris, 107 ; con-
sents to the sale of Joan of Arc to
the English, 133 ; an assessor at
the trial of the Maid, 144

Machot, Gerard, Bishop of Castres, 32

Mackintosh, Sir James, 300

Ma9on, Robert de, 71

Macquelonne, the Bishop of, 32

Macy, historian, cited, 142

Macy, Aimonde de, soldier, 283

Mahon, Lord, 300

Mailly, John de. Bishop of Noyon,
assessor at trial of Joan of Arc, 144 ;
at the trial for rehabilitation, 276

Manchon, William, assessor at the trial
ofjoanof Arc, 144, 151, 157, 209;
cited for the brutal treatment of her
guard, 237, 238 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 279

.Mansier, canon, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 148

Marcel, John, 284

' Margette,' the, 24

Marguerie, canon at Rouen, assessor
at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148,
222, 224, 282

Marie, Thomas, priest, 282

Marin, Captain, cited, 112, 127

Martigny, Louis de, 216

Martin, Henry, historian, 298

Martyn, English writer, 300

Masle, Du, Abbot of Saint Ouen,
assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,
148

Masnier, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259

Massieu, John, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 144, 151, 153 ;
grants her permission to kneel at
the prison chapel door, 197, 222 ;
urges her to abjure, 232 ; cited for
the brutal treatment of her guard,
237, 249 ; at the trial for rehabilita-
tion, 280

Maurice, Peter, 243

Metz, Jean de, becomes acquainted
with Joan of Arc, 14 ; escorts her
to Chinon, 19 ; at the trial for re-
habilitation, 261

Mezarie, historian, 291

Michelet, cited, 3, 82, I2r, 131, 187,
199, 236, 238, 291 ; his Life of
Joan of Arc, 297

332

MID

INDEX.

RAB

Midi, Nicolas, D.D., assessor at the

trial of Joan of Arc, 146 ; his ser-
mon on the eve of Joan's death, 246
Migiet, Peter, Prior of Longueville,

assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,

148 ; at the trial for rehabilitation,

277
Milet, Peter, 274
Moen, John, of Domremy, 261
Monstesch^re, John de, master gunner

at the siege of Orleans, 43
Monstrelet, Enguerrand de, cited,

46, 129; the most eminent writer

against Joan of Arc, 289
Montaigne, cited, 12
Montgomery, commands the English

forces before Compiegne, 123
Montjeu, Philibert de. Bishop of Cou-

tances, assessor at the trial of Joan

of Arc, 145
Moreaux, John, burgher of Rouen, 284
Morel, Aubert, canon, assessor at the

trial of Joan of Arc, 148, 222, 224
Morel, John, village companion of

Joan of Arc, 8g
Morel de Greux, John, godfather of

Joan of Arc, 258
Morellet, canon, assessor at the trial

ofjoanof Arc, 148
Moret, Abbot of Preaux, assessor at

the trial of Joan of Arc, 148
Morice, Peter, canon at Rouen,

assessor at the trial of Joan of

Arc, 146, 226
Mystery play, the French, on Joan

of Arc, 301

Nicolas v., Pop", opposed to the
rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 254

Paris, Martial de, French poet, 301

Paris, University of. See University

Parliament, French, at Poitiers, 31 ;
examine Joan of Arc, 32 ; sanction
her mission, 36

Pasquerel, Jean, cited, 27, 37 ; at the
trial for rehabilitation, 268

Pasquier, Stephen, French juriscon-
sult, 290

Patay, the battle of, 80

Perrin le Brassier, bell-ringer of Dom-
remy, 260

Petitot, 291, 292

Pierre, Isambard de la, Dominican
priest, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 149, 151 ; his sympathy
for her, 195, 224, 235 ; cited for
the brutal treatment of her guard,
238 ; attends her last moments,
245, 249, 251 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 280

Pinchon, canon, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 148

Pisan, Christine de, poetess, 301

Poitiers, the Great Hall of, 31 ; the
Bishop of, 32

Pole, John de la, at the siege of
Orleans, 43

Pole, William de la. See Suffolk, the
Earl of

Postel, William, French writer, 290

Postian, William, burgher of Orleans,

273

Pougoulat, 292

Poulangy, Bertrand de, 11 ; escorts
Joan of Arc on her journey to
Chinon, 19 ; at the trial for re-
habilitation, 261

Prevosteau, advocate, at the trial for
rehabilitation, 256

Orleans, the siege of, begun by the Quicherat, historian, cited, 24, 55,

English, 13 ; enthusiasm of the 291 ; his literary labours, 292

people of, for Joan of Arc, 36 ; its Quincey, De, 300

defences, 39 ; horrors of the siege,

45 ; the siege raised, 66, 68

Ourche, Albert d', knight, 261 Rabelais, connection with Chinon, 25

333

RAB

INDEX.

THE

Rabuteau, Maitrejean, Parliamentary

Advocate-General, 32
Radley, English officer, 107
Raimond, page of Joan, 37
Rainguesson, John, godfather of Joan

of Arc, 25S
Rais, Seigneur de, 47, 75 ; accom-
panies Charles VII. to Rheims, 85
Regnault, William, captures the Earl

of Suffolk at Jargeau, 77
Rheims, coronation of Charles VII.

at, 9 1
Rheims, the Archbishop of. See Char-

tres, Regnault de
Richard, Father, his interview with

Joan of Arc, 86
Richarville, Guillaume de, 274
Richemont, Constable de, joins the

army of the Loire, 78
Richer, Edmond, doctor of theology,

291
Rochelle, Catherine de la, her deceit

exposed by Joan of Arc, 118
Roger, Denis, burgher of Orleans,

273
Roquier, John, priest, 282
Rotslaer, Sire de,^ cited, 60
Rouillart, William, burgher of Orleans,

272
Roussel, 224
Rouvray, the Battle of the Herrings

near, 44
Royer, Henry and Joan le, 261

Savoy, Duke of, 106

Scales, Lord, at siege of Orleans, 42

Schiller, his Jungfrau von Orleans,

307
Sequier, Dominican monk, 32 ; ques-
tions Joan, 33 ; at the trial for

rehabilitation, 263
Shakespeare and the character of Joan

of Arc, 301, 3C9
Sionne, Etienne de, curate, 260
Sismondi, historian, 296
Solera, 309
Sorel, Agnes, 52
Soumet, dramatic poet, 308
Southey, cited, 306 ; his heroic poem

on Joan of Arc, 307
Stafford, Lord, visits Joan of Arc in

prison, 142
Sterling, John, 300
Stern, Daniel, French authoress, 308
Stow, historian, 299
Stuart, John, Constable of Scotland,

killed at the battle of the Herrings,

45

Stuart, William, brother of the Con-
stable of Scotland, killed at the
battle of the Herrings, 45

Suffolk, William de la Pole, Earl of,
commands the English forces before
Orleans, 43 ; confronts the French
at Jargeau, 75 ; defeated and cap-
tured, 77

Sainte-Beuve, cited, 2 ; on Walton's

biography of Joan of Arc, 298
Saint-Mesmin, Aignan de, burgher of

Orleans, 273
Saint-Prix, Berriat, historian, 293 ;

his itinerary of the last three years

of the life of Joan of Arc, ib.
Saint-Severe, Marshal. See Boussac.
Salisbury, commands the English

forces before Orleans, 40 ; mortally

wounded, 42
Saulx, canon, assessor at the trial of

Joan of Arc, 148

Talbot, Lord, at the siege of Orleans,
42 ; withdraws his forces, 67 ; joins
hands with Fastolfe, 78 ; defeated
and taken prisoner, 80

Talbot, William, attendant on Joan
of Arc, 149, 157

Taquel, Nicolas, assessor at the trial
of Joan of Arc, 144 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 280

Th^pelin de Viteau, Jeannette, god-
mother of Joan of Arc, 258

Theroude, Abbot of Mortemer, assessor
at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148

Thevenin le Royer, of Domremy, 261

334

THE

INDEX.

XAI

Theverien, Jeannette, godmother of

Joan of Arc, 258
Thibault, Gobert, 32, 264
Thierry, Reginald, court physician,

274
Thou, James de, burgher of Orleans,

273

Tilloy, Jamet de, French knight, 36

Tiphanie, assessor at the trial of Joan
of Arc, 149, 278

Touraine, James de, assessor at the
trial of Joan of Arc, 146

Toutmouille, John, apprises Joan of
Arc of her fate, 243 ; at the trial for
rehabilitation, 281

Tremoille, George de la, minister of
Charles VII. , 23 ; tries to thwart
Joan of Arc in her mission, 24, 30,
55, 112 ; alarmed at her ever-grow-
ing popularity, 83 ; accompanies
the King to Rheims, 85, 128

Troyes, the treaty of (1420), I

Troyes, John de, senior of the Faculty
of Theology in the University of
Paris, 224

University of Paris, aid in the pro-
secution of Joan of Arc, 130 ; con-
stitution of the, 134 ; recommend
the removal of Joan to Paris, 140 ;
their decision regarding her guilt,
224

Vaillant, Peter, burgher c.f Orleans,

273
Vaux, Pasquier de, canon, one of the

tribunal on the trial of Joan of Arc,

148
Venderes, Nicolas de, canon of Rouen,

assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc,

147, 222, 225
Vend6me, Comte de. Chamberlain to

Charles VII., 27, 75 ; accompanies

the King to Rheims, 85
Verdi, 307

Vernon, Raoul Roussel de, reporter

at the trial of Joan of Arc, 147
Versailles, Pierre de, 35
Veuillot, on Wallon's Life of Joan of

Arc, 298
Viennne, Colet de, escorts Joan of

Arc to Chinon, 19
Villars, French knight, 36
Villaume, biographer of Joan of Arc,

299
Villon, Fran9ois, his lines on Joan of

Arc, 302, 308
Viole, Aignan, advocate, 274
Virey, his tragedy on Joan of Arc, 306
Virgile, Polydore, French writer, 290
Viriville, Vallet de, 291
Volant, John, burgher of Orleans, 272
Voltaire, cited, 285 ; his Piicelle,

306, 309

Wallon, historian, cited, 46, 126,

210, 211, 227, 297
Wandome, the Bastard of, 128
Warwick, Earl of, visits Joan of Arc
in prison, 142 ; threatens Isambard
de la Pierre for his sympathy with
her, 196 ; demands that she should
be saved from a natural death, 214;
enraged at the prospect of her re-
lease, 235
Waterin, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259
Waverin, English officer, cited for the
English loss at the battle of Patay,
80
Winchester, Henry Beaufort, Bishop
of, arrives in Paris with his army,
101 ; retains Peter Cauchon to pro-
secute Joan of Arc, 132 ; his scheme
for this purpose, 137 ; at the abjura-
tion of Joan, 229 ; weeps over her
fate, 248

Xaintrailles, 40, 47 ; accompanies
Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 ; taken
prisoner, 125

THE END.

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